conditioning in XML parsing - PHP - php

Question

Its been a while since the last time I was coding, and I am a little rusty. I am trying to parse an xml file and having a problem with the condition. Spent hours trying to figure out where is the problem, but without success...
PHP CODE:
<div id="gallery">
<?php
$cat_img="images/cat.png";
$logo_path="logos/";
$file = simplexml_load_file('stores.xml');
$old_cat="";
foreach($file->store as $store){
if($store->cat != $old_cat){
echo "<img id='cat' src='".$cat_img."'><div id='cat_text'>".$store->cat."</div><br>";
$old_cat=$store->cat;
}
echo "<div id='store'><img id='store_img' src='".$logo_path.$store->logo."' alt='logo'><br>";
echo "<store_name>".$store->name."</store_name>";
echo "<phone>".$store->phone."</phone><phone>טל: </phone></div>";
}
?>
</div>
STORES.XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<stores>
<store><logo>renuar.jpg</logo>
<name>renuar</name>
<phone>052-6059962</phone>
<cat>clothing</cat></store>
<store><logo>yoop.jpg</logo>
<name>YOOP</name>
<phone>08-6601451</phone>
<cat>clothing</cat></store>
....
</stores>
The idea is to print every store, when category changes it should print the category divider and keep printing the stores. Somehow the condition is always true and I have no idea why...
p.s
If anyone has a better idea on how to divide the categories, a different method, I would be happy to hear.
Thanks!!!

Answer 1

$store->cat will be SimpleXMLElement object and two object will not be same even with same category name. You need to cast it to string for comparison
Like (string) $store->cat, try this:
<?php
$cat_img = "images/cat.png";
$logo_path = "logos/";
$file = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
$old_cat = "";
foreach ($file->store as $store) {
if ((string) $store->cat != $old_cat) {
echo "<img id='cat' src='" . $cat_img . "'><div id='cat_text'>category: " . $store->cat . "</div><br>";
$old_cat = (string) $store->cat;
}
echo "<div id='store'><img id='store_img' src='" . $logo_path . $store->logo . "' alt='logo'><br>";
echo "<store_name>" . $store->name . "</store_name>";
echo "<phone>" . $store->phone . "</phone><phone>טל: </phone></div>";
}
?>