How can I extract value from an xml - php

Question

I'm new to PHP. I'm trying to get the data out of the below XML. Now, in my code $data->Address contains value of the below code i.e:
$data->Address = "<tolist></tolist>
<cclist>
<cc>
<contactpersonname>niraj</contactpersonname>
<name>niraj</name>
<email>stgh#gmail.com</email>
<number>+91.3212365212</number>
<prefix>Ms.</prefix>
<contactpersonprefix>Ms.</contactpersonprefix>
</cc>
<cc>
<contactpersonname>fdg</contactpersonname>
<name>admin</name>
<email>admin12#gmail.com</email>
<number>+91.4554343234</number>
<prefix>Mr.</prefix>
<contactpersonprefix>Mr.</contactpersonprefix>
</cc>
</cclist>";
Now I want to extract the <contactpersonname> tag and print it. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Since your XML is missing a tag that encompasses all others, you need to create on in order to get parsers to work properly:
<?php
$buffer = "<tolist></tolist>
<cclist>
<cc>
<contactpersonname>niraj</contactpersonname>
<name>niraj</name>
<email>stgh#gmail.com</email>
<number>+91.3212365212</number>
<prefix>Ms.</prefix>
<contactpersonprefix>Ms.</contactpersonprefix>
</cc>
<cc>
<contactpersonname>fdg</contactpersonname>
<name>admin</name>
<email>admin12#gmail.com</email>
<number>+91.4554343234</number>
<prefix>Mr.</prefix>
<contactpersonprefix>Mr.</contactpersonprefix>
</cc>
</cclist>";
// ***** wrap the whole thing in a <root> tag...
$xml = simplexml_load_string("<root>".$buffer."</root>");
$array = json_decode(json_encode((array) $xml), 1);
echo "<pre>";
print_r($array);
echo "</pre>";
?>
Result:
Array
(
[tolist] => Array
(
)
[cclist] => Array
(
[cc] => Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[contactpersonname] => niraj
[name] => niraj
[email] => stgh#gmail.com
[number] => +91.3212365212
[prefix] => Ms.
[contactpersonprefix] => Ms.
)
[1] => Array
(
[contactpersonname] => fdg
[name] => admin
[email] => admin12#gmail.com
[number] => +91.4554343234
[prefix] => Mr.
[contactpersonprefix] => Mr.
)
)
)
)
UPDATED
Now you can navigate down to where you want to go with
echo "<pre>";
$ccList = $array['cclist'];
$cc = $ccList['cc'];
$contacts = array();
foreach($cc as $i=>$val) {
$contacts[$i]=$val['contactpersonname'];
}
echo "first contact: " . $contacts[0] . "<br>";
echo "second contact: " . $contacts[1] ."<br>";
Result:
first contact: niraj
second contact: fdg

Answer 2

You can convert the XML to an array with the following code:
$xml = simplexml_load_string($buffer);
$array = json_decode(json_encode((array) $xml), 1);
Where $buffer is the xml string.
Then you can obtain the person name as follow:
$data->Address = $array['cclist']['cc']['contactpersonname'];
It's a quick and dirty method to convert the xml to an array, but it works.

Answer 3

Try this..
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);
$results = $xml->xpath('cclist/cc/contactpersonname');
http://php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.xpath.php

Answer 4

$xml = simplexml_load_file("note.xml");
echo $xml->contactpersonname;
This requires you to load it form an xml file. If you already have the string in the code I'd recommend a regex. If you know the data won't ever be incorrect written!
$pattern = '#<contactpersonname>(.*?)</contactpersonname>#';
echo preg_match ($pattern, $data->Address);