PHP Array Comparison using If - php

Question

I am having a hard time trying to understand why I can't compare the values of two arrays in PHP. If I echo both of these during the loop using "echo $description->ItemDesriptionName;" and "echo $item->ItemName;" the values seem to show as the same, but when I try to compare them using if, nothing works. What am I missing?
<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("test.xml") or die("Error: Cannot create object");
$categories = $xml->Menu->Categories;
$items = $xml->Menu->Categories->Items->ItemObject;
$itemdescription = $xml->Menu->Options->Description->DescriptionObject;
foreach($items as $item) {
echo $item->ItemName . ' - ' . $item->Price . '</br>';
foreach ($itemdescription as $description) {
if ($description->ItemDescriptionName == $item->ItemName) {
echo 'We have a match!';
//where I would echo $description->ItemDescription;
}
}
}
?>
Here is the XML file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Root>
<Menu>
<Categories>
<Name>Category 1</Name>
<Items>
<ItemObject>
<ItemName>Item 1</ItemName>
<Price>1</Price>
</ItemObject>
<ItemObject>
<ItemName>Item 2</ItemName>
<Price>3</Price>
</ItemObject>
</Items>
</Categories>
<Options>
<Description>
<DescriptionObject>
<ItemDescriptionName>Item 1</ItemDescriptionName>
<ItemDescription>A Great item</ItemDescription>
</DescriptionObject>
<DescriptionObject>
<ItemDescriptionName>Item 2</ItemDescriptionName>
<ItemDescription>A Great item as well</ItemDescription>
</DescriptionObject>
</Description>
</Options>
</Menu>
</Root>

Answer 1

compare as string
and you have typo in ItemDescriptioName (ItemDescriptionName)
if ( (string)$description->ItemDescriptionName == (string)$item->ItemName) {

Answer 2

Convert to string and then compare
<?php
$xml=simplexml_load_file("test.xml") or die("Error: Cannot create object");
$menu = $xml->Menu;
$categories = $xml->Menu->Categories;
$items = $xml->Menu->Categories->Items->ItemObject;
$itemdescription = $xml->Menu->Options->Description->DescriptionObject;
foreach($items as $item) {
$itemname = $item->ItemName;
foreach ($itemdescription as $description) {
$descriptionname = $description->ItemDescriptionName ;
echo $itemname." ---- ".$descriptionname."<br/>";
if((string)$itemname === (string)$descriptionname){
echo "Yes its matched";
}
}
}
?>
Working fine for me

Answer 3

The properties like $description->ItemDescriptionName are SimpleXMLElement objects. So you do not compare strings but two objects.
SimpleXMLElement objects implement the magic method __toString(). They can be cast to string automatically, but a compare between to objects will not trigger that. You can force it:
if ((string)$description->ItemDescriptionName === (string)$item->ItemName) {
...

Answer 4

Can you access them directly instead using an accordant index?
...
$items = $xml->Menu->Categories->Items->ItemObject;
$itemdescription = $xml->Menu->Options->Description;
$i = 0;
foreach ($items as $item) {
echo $i.' '.$item->ItemName . ' - ' . $item->Price;
echo $itemdescription->DescriptionObject[$i]->ItemDescriptionName[0];
echo ' ';
echo $itemdescription->DescriptionObject[$i]->ItemDescription[0];
echo '</br>';
$i++;
}