Using xpath to query XML in PHP - php

Question

I am using xpath for the first time to query an xml document for a value and return the corresponding name value. I have been reading numerous different sources on the topic but I can't seem to get it to output correctly. Here is my XML:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<books>
<book>
<name>Genesis</name>
<abrv>GEN</abrv>
<title>The First Book of Moses</title>
</book>
<book>
<name>Exodus</name>
<abrv>EXO</abrv>
<title>The Second Book of Moses</title>
</book>
<book>
<name>Leviticus</name>
<abrv>LEV</abrv>
<title>The Third Book of Moses</title>
</book>
</books>
Here is my PHP/HTML:
<?php $root = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/";
$bookID = 'GEN';
$xml = simplexml_load_file( $root . 'assets/xml/books.xml' ) or die( "No Page Data Found" );
$bookName = $xml->xpath( '//book[abrv="'.$bookID.'"]/name' );
?>
<article id="verseOfDay">
<div class="container">
<h2>verse of the day</h2>
<h6><?php echo $bookName; ?></h6> // Line 19
<p></p>
</div>
</article>
Finally, here is the notice that I am receiving:
NOTICE: ARRAY TO STRING CONVERSION IN /HOME/#####/MYWEBSITE.COM/ASSETS/INCLUDES/VERSEOFTHEDAY.PHP ON LINE 19
ARRAY
What am I doing wrong? In this example I am expecting it to output Genesis in the tag.

Answer 1

The SimpleXML xpath function returns an array of results, which will be empty if no result is found. So you need to check for that, and if you get a result, it will be at $bookName[0]. Something like this will work:
$bookNames = $xml->xpath( '//book[abrv="'.$bookID.'"]/name' );
$bookName = empty($bookNames) ? 'Not Found' : $bookNames[0];
?>
<article id="verseOfDay">
<div class="container">
<h2>verse of the day</h2>
<h6><?php echo $bookName; ?></h6>
<p></p>
</div>
</article>
Demo on 3v4l.org