Check if it is an array from SimpleXMLElement object - php

Question

I have a problem with the follow php object dump. I try to check if "price" is an array, php return me always false. var_dump() of array "price" return me first element of array and not the entire array. Which is wrong? How can I check if it is an array?
object(SimpleXMLElement)#197 (1) {
["price"]=> array(4) {
[0]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#156 (4) {
["room_id"]=> string(4) "1755"
["room_seq"]=> string(1) "1"
["offer_id"]=> string(4) "5842"
["price_total"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#205 (2) {
["price_typ"]=> string(1) "0"
["price_hb"]=> string(4) "2450"
}
}
[1]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#143 (4) {
["room_id"]=> string(5) "24206"
["room_seq"]=> string(1) "1"
["offer_id"]=> string(4) "5842"
["price_total"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#205 (2) {
["price_typ"]=> string(1) "0"
["price_hb"]=> string(4) "2450"
}
}
[2]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#135 (4) {
["room_id"]=> string(4) "1755"
["room_seq"]=> string(1) "1"
["offer_id"]=> string(6) "415725"
["price_total"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#205 (2) {
["price_typ"]=> string(1) "0"
["price_hb"]=> string(6) "2327.5"
}
}
[3]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#136 (4) {
["room_id"]=> string(5) "24206"
["room_seq"]=> string(1) "1"
["offer_id"]=> string(6) "415725"
["price_total"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#205 (2) {
["price_typ"]=> string(1) "0"
["price_hb"]=> string(6) "2327.5"
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

Consider a simplified example:
<root>
<element>first</element>
<element>second</element>
<element>third</element>
</root>
$root->element is not really an array. It is SimpleXMLElement object. You can think of it as a selector, a collection of elements you can traverse using foreach and also access specific object using indexes:
$root->element[0]; //first object
$root->element[1]; //second
$root->element[2]; //third
Here is more examples of basic usage: http://php.net/manual/en/simplexml.examples-basic.php
So the real question is: How to define if there is more than one element in collection ?
You can do it using count() method:
if($es->result->hotel->channel->room_price->price->count() > 1){
echo 'many elements';
}
Read more: http://php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.count.php

Answer 2

// simplexml_load_string() return false if not $XML
$xml = simplexml_load_string($pSdata);
if(gettype($xml)=='object')
{
print_r(simplexmlArray($xml));
} else {
echo "no xml input";
}
// simplexml_load $xml obj to array
function simplexmlArray ( $xmlObject, $out = array () )
{
foreach ( (array) $xmlObject as $index => $node )
$out[$index] = ( is_object ( $node ) ) ? simplexmlArray ( $node ) : $node;
return $out;
}