Traversing XML structure in PHP - php

Question

How can I read the state in this object of an array
I am getting this result when I
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml_string);
display_output($xml->country[0]);
RESULT:
SimpleXMLElement::__set_state(array(
'#attributes' =>
array (
'name' => 'Afghanistan',
),
'state' =>
array (
0 => 'Badakhshan',
1 => 'Badghis',
2 => 'Baghlan',
3 => 'Balkh',
4 => 'Bamian',
5 => 'Farah',
6 => 'Faryab',
7 => 'Ghazni',
8 => 'Ghowr',
9 => 'Helmand',
10 => 'Herat',
11 => 'Jowzjan',
12 => 'Kabol',
13 => 'Kandahar',
14 => 'Kapisa',
15 => 'Konar',
16 => 'Kondoz',
17 => 'Laghman',
18 => 'Lowgar',
19 => 'Nangarhar',
20 => 'Nimruz',
21 => 'Oruzgan',
22 => 'Paktia',
23 => 'Paktika',
24 => 'Parvan',
25 => 'Samangan',
26 => 'Sar-e Pol',
27 => 'Takhar',
28 => 'Vardak',
29 => 'Zabol',
),
))
I would like to get the state, how can I do it? I have tried, unfortunately it is not working.
$a = $xml->country[0]->state[0];
*below is the xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<countries>
<country name="Afghanistan">
<state>Badakhshan</state>
<state>Badghis</state>
<state>Baghlan</state>
<state>Balkh</state>
<state>Zabol</state>
</country>
</countries>
Update, found the answer:
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml_string);
$country = array();
$state = array();
for($x=0;$x<count($xml);$x++)
{
$country[] = (string)$xml->country[$x]->attributes()->name;
if(isset($xml->country[$x]->state))
{
for($y=0;$y<count($xml->country[$x]->state);$y++)
{
$state[$x][] = (string)$xml->country[$x]->state[$y];
}
}
}
return array($country,$state);

Answer 1

I would think you would use xpath to look for the attribute "Afghanistan" on a country element, since you know this is the country you are looking to get data for.
$afghanistan = $xml->xpath("//country[#name='Afghanistan']");
$afghan_states = $afghanistan->state;
$first_state = $afghan_states[0];
Or if you don't need the country level information, you could use a more specific xpath selector:
$afghan_states = $xml->xpath("//country[#name='Afghanistan']/state");
$first_state = $afghan_states[0];
This would make your code work even if there were changes in country element ordering in the XML.