How to loop through two xml files? - php

Question

I have two xml files that look like this:
First:
<numbers>
<line><value>a1</value></line>
<line><value>a2</value></line>
<line><value>a3</value></line>
</numbers>
Second:
<numbers>
<line><value>b1</value></line>
<line><value>b2</value></line>
<line><value>b3</value></line>
</numbers>
Right now I have double foreach loops (I know it should be something else, for loop maybe?)
$xmldata = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');
$xmldata2 = simplexml_load_file('file2.xml');
foreach($xmldata->line as $item){
foreach($xmldata2->line as $item2){
echo $item->value;
echo $item2->value. "</p>";
}
}
But the output is this:
a1b1
a1b2
a1b3
a2b1
a2b2
a2b3
a3b1
a3b2
a3b3
Should be:
a1b1
a2b2
a3b3

Answer 1

Not sure of the logic but this would achieve what you say you want to achieve.
$xmldata = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');
$xmldata2 = simplexml_load_file('file2.xml');
$key = 0;
foreach($xmldata->line as $item){
echo '<p>';
echo $item->value;
echo $xmldata2->line[$key]->value;
echo "</p>";
$key++;
}
RESULT
<p>a1b1</p>
<p>a2b2</p>
<p>a3b3</p>
But if it is possible that the 2 xml files may not be the same length this might be safer.
$xmldata = simplexml_load_file('file.xml');
$xmldata2 = simplexml_load_file('file2.xml');
// only loop for the number of occurances in the smallest xml file
$max = count($xmldata) >= count($xmldata2) ? count($xmldata2) : count($xmldata);
for ($key=0; $key < $max; $key++){
echo '<p>';
echo $xmldata->line[$key]->value;
echo $xmldata2->line[$key]->value;
echo "</p>";
}