PHP Object array access with variable - php

Question

I have a sample object array as a variable $xmlobj
SimpleXMLElement Object(
[SearchId] => 10769920113727_1556288871357_170040
[Categories] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[total_subcategories] => 1
)
[SubCategory] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[Title] => Reproductor MP3 y Multimedia
[Value] => 122701
[NumberOfProducts] => 1
)
)
[Products] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[totalResultsAvailable] => 1
[firstResultPosition] => 1
[totalResultsReturned] => 1
[currency] => EUR
[totalMerchantsAvailable] => 1
[searchOperator] => and
)
[Product] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[Offer] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[id] => f94af9ec5186b53051c9ccf083ebddec
[type] => MANUFACTURER_PRODUCTS
)
[Title] => Apple iPod Nano 6 8 GB Gris
[Description] => iPod Nano 6 8 GB - Gris
[LastModified] => 2019-04-26 01:10:56
[MobileFriendly] => false
[Merchant] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[id] => 15348713
)
[Name] => Backmarket
)
[Price] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[#attributes] => Array
(
[currency] => EUR
)
[Price] => 99.99
[DeliveryCost] => 19.9
[DeliveryCostDetails] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[DeliveryCost] => 19.9
)
[TotalPrice] => 119.89
[PriceWithoutRebate] => 190
[Rebate] => 47
)
[ProductClass] => 2
[Availability] => 1
[DeliveryTime] => 24H / 4 días laborables
[Promo] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
)
[OffensiveContent] => false
[FinancingOption] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
)
[MerchantCategory] => Alta Tecnología Imágenes y sonidos Reproductor de MP3 Y MP4
[Brand] => Apple
[BrandId] => 211
[GreenProduct] => false
)
)
)
Now when I want to access e.g. price i do it like this:
$product_total_price = $xmlobj->Products->Product->Offer->Price->TotalPrice;
And it's OK - I get what I want, but I am having issue when I want "dynamically" to change what I am looking for like:
$search_part = "Products->Product->Offer->Price->TotalPrice";
$product_total_price = $xmlobj->$search_part;
I obviously get nothing... even when I try:
$product_total_price = $xmlobj."->".$search_part;
So my question is... how to do it ? :)
Thanks !

Answer 1

You will have to construct the path by exploding into an array, then looping to get each property.
For example...
$searchPart = "Products->Product->Offer->Price->TotalPrice";
$searchPath = explode('->', $searchPart);
$current = $xmlobj;
foreach ($searchPath as $segment) {
$current = $current->$segment;
}
var_dump($current);
or you can convert it to an array and then you will be able to get your attributes
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlobj);
$json = json_encode($xml);
$arr = json_decode($json,TRUE);
$parseString = 'Products->Product->Offer->Price->#attributes->currency';
$parsePath = explode('->', $parseString);
$current = $arr;
foreach ($parsePath as $segment) {
$current = $current[$segment];
}
var_dump($current);

Answer 2

You can take a look at eval that take your code as a string and evaluates it, but I strongly discourage its usage because it's a potentially (and very big) security hole.
Instead you could use explode passing as first argument -> and then loop over the resulting array to get the value you need:
$search_part = "Products->Product->Offer->Price->TotalPrice";
$chunks = explode("->", $search_part);
foreach ($chunks as $chunk) {
$temp = $xmlobj[$chunk];
}
$product_total_price = $temp;
or something similar, and then you will get you price dynamically
Note that if $xmlObj is of type Object you will need to use $xmlObj->{$chunk} instead of $xmlobj[$chunk]