XPath - displaying attributes - php

Question

I have a following script:
<?php
$str = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ROOT>
<ITEMS>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 1</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="1">NOVEL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 2</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="2">MANUAL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
</ITEMS>
</ROOT>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($str);
$category = $xml->xpath("/ROOT/ITEMS/BOOK/CATEGORY/text()");
print_r($category);
?>
I want to select all the categiries in xpath.
I tried also:
$category = $xml->xpath("/ROOT/ITEMS/BOOK/CATEGORY");
But my output is:
Array ( [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [#attributes] => Array ( [id] => 1 ) ) [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object ( [#attributes] => Array ( [id] => 2 ) ) )
I don't want this output. I want to display NOVEL and MANUAL. I don't understand it, because I didn't use attribute command in xpath and I got it.
How to solve it? Thank you.

Answer 1

I have own solution. After few hours I have it! Thanks to your link in your answer. I read the examples and found how to get the right values.
<?php
$str = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ROOT>
<ITEMS>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 1</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="1">NOVEL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 2</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="2">MANUAL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
</ITEMS>
</ROOT>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($str);
$category = $xml->xpath("/ROOT/ITEMS/BOOK/CATEGORY/text()");
while(list( , $node) = each($category)) {
echo $node."<BR />";
}
?>

Answer 2

When you use xpath return arrays is an array of SimpleXMLElement Objects (http://php.net/manual/ru/simplexmlelement.xpath.php), so they have their own structures. Somehow, you can iterate over this array and get all node values like this:
<?php
$str = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ROOT>
<ITEMS>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 1</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="1">NOVEL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
<BOOK>
<TITLE>Name 2</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>Author</AUTHOR>
<CATEGORY id="2">MANUAL</CATEGORY>
</BOOK>
</ITEMS>
</ROOT>';
$xml = simplexml_load_string($str);
$categories = $xml->xpath("/ROOT/ITEMS/BOOK/CATEGORY/text()");
foreach($categories as $category) {
echo "$category\n";
}