PHP Parse XML with Attributes - php

Question

I have an XML document that I am trying to get some of the values for and don't know how to get to the attributes. An example of the structure and values are below:
<vin_number value="3N1AB51D84L729887">
<common_data>
<engines>
</engines>
</common_data>
<available_vehicle_styles>
<vehicle_style name="SE-R 4dr Sedan" style_id="100285116" complete="Y">
<engines>
<engine brand="" name="ED 2L NA I 4 double overhead cam (DOHC) 16V"></engine>
</engines>
</vehicle_style>
</available_vehicle_styles>
</vin_number>
I am trying to get the engine["name"] attribute (NOT "ENGINES"). I thought the following would work but I get errors (I cant parse past "vehicle_style")
$xml = simplexml_load_file($fileVIN);
foreach($xml->vin_number->available_vehicle_styles->vehicle_style->engines->engine->attributes() as $a => $b) {
echo $b;
}

Answer 1

Assuming your XML is structured in the same was as this example XML, the following two snippets will get the engine name.
The property hierarchy way (split onto multiple lines so you can read it).
$name = (string) $xml->vin_number
->available_vehicle_styles
->vehicle_style
->engines
->engine['name'];
Or the more concise XPath way.
$engines = $xml->xpath('//engines/engine');
$name = (string) $engines[0]['name'];
Unless there are multiple engine names in your XML, there is no need to use a foreach loop at all.
(See both snippets running on a codepad.)

Answer 2

Use the SimpleXMLElement::attributes method to get the attributes:
foreach($xml->available_vehicle_styles->vehicle_style as $b) {
$attrs = $b->attributes();
echo "Name = $attrs->name";
}
Note: I slightly changed the "path" to the element starting from $xml because that's how it loaded the fragment for me.

Answer 3

By this layout, there could be more than one engine per engines block, so you have to explicitly pick the first one. (Assuming you know for sure there's only going to be one.)
$name = $xml->available_vehicle_styles->vehicle_style->engines->engine[0]->attributes()->name;