SimpleXML to Array - php

Question

I load some XML which produces a SimpleXML Object like so (only displaying one Object)
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[Jobs] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[Job] => Array
(
[0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[ID] => J000001
[Name] => Internal Time
[Description] => Use this job to record your internal and non-billable time for activities such as annual leave, sick leave, professional development, staff meetings etc
[Client] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[ID] => 8430219
[Name] => Fake Client
)
[ClientOrderNumber] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
)
[State] => Planned
[StartDate] => 2016-03-21T00:00:00
[DueDate] => 2017-03-21T00:00:00
[InternalID] => 11442733
[Assigned] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[Staff] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[ID] => 344460
[Name] => Som Name
)
)
)
)
)
)
What I would like to do is create an array of the client Name and client ID. So I am aiming for something like so
[data] => array (
8430219 => Fake Client,
8430343 => Another Client,
etc
)
At the moment, I can get the name in place, but struggling with the id because it says it is an illegal offset type. This is what I have
foreach($oXML->Jobs as $oEntry) {
foreach ($oEntry->Job as $data) {
$jobsArray = array(
$data->Client->ID => $data->Client->Name
);
}
}
How can I create the array based on the SimpleXML Object I have?
Thanks

Answer 1

First of all, to obtain your desired array you can not use this syntax:
$jobsArray = array( $key => $val );
You have to use something like this:
$jobsArray[$key] = $val;
Otherwise, at each repeating loop, your syntax will override precedent array values.
Then, I suggest you to use XPath to simplify entire process. With XPath queries, you can retrieve a set of nodes with only one search.
Assuming you have this XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Jobs>
<Job>
<Client>
<ID>8430219</ID>
<Name>Fake Client</Name>
</Client>
<Client>
<ID>8430220</ID>
<Name>Fake Client 2</Name>
</Client>
</Job>
<Job>
<Client>
<ID>8430221</ID>
<Name>Fake Client 3</Name>
</Client>
</Job>
</Jobs>
With this xpath query:
$clients = $oXML->xpath( '/Jobs/Job/Client' );
you obtain in $clients all <Client> nodes. Then you can create your array in this way:
$result = array();
foreach( $clients as $client )
{
$result[$client->ID->__toString()] = $client->Name->__toString();
}
This is $result after foreach loop:
Array
(
[8430219] => Fake Client
[8430220] => Fake Client 2
[8430221] => Fake Client 3
)
Note that we have to cast as string single nodes (that are SimpleXML objects): this is absolutely necessary creating keys, otherwise the array assignment fails. You can obtain same result using (string) $client->ID instead of $client->ID->__toString()
Read more about SimpleXMLElement::xpath
Read more about XPath