Repurposing data from simpleXML to an array - php

Question

I'm having trouble accessing variable from an object. The object is coming from an API feed and a var_dump looks like this:
object(stdClass)#2 (1) {
["GetBookingsResult"]=>
string(189227) "<Bookings>
<Data>
<BookingDate>2012-01-06T00:00:00-06:00</BookingDate>
<StartBookingDate>2012-01-06T00:00:00-06:00</StartBookingDate>
<RoomDescription>Dorm A</RoomDescription>
<TimeEventStart>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</TimeEventStart>
<TimeEventEnd>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</TimeEventEnd>
<GroupName>Family Retreat</GroupName>
<EventName>Family Retreat</EventName>
<SetupTypeDescription>(none)</SetupTypeDescription>
<SetupCount>27</SetupCount>
<ReservationID>1222</ReservationID>
<EventCoordinator />
<GroupID>12</GroupID>
<VIP xml:space="preserve"> </VIP>
<VIPEvent>false</VIPEvent>
<ClosedAllDay>false</ClosedAllDay>
<OpenTime>1900-01-01T00:00:00-06:00</OpenTime>
<CloseTime>1900-01-01T00:00:00-06:00</CloseTime>
<GroupTypeDescription>Religious - Conference</GroupTypeDescription>
<EventTypeDescription>Retreat</EventTypeDescription>
<Contact>Phyllis 0000000000</Contact>
<AltContact />
<BookingID>29512</BookingID>
<TimeBookingStart>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</TimeBookingStart>
<TimeBookingEnd>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</TimeBookingEnd>
<GMTStartTime>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</GMTStartTime>
<GMTEndTime>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</GMTEndTime>
<BuildingCode>Asb</BuildingCode>
<Building>Dormitory</Building>
<RoomCode>ASB A</RoomCode>
<Room>Dorm A</Room>
<RoomID>181</RoomID>
<BuildingID>20</BuildingID>
<StatusID>1</StatusID>
<StatusTypeID>-14</StatusTypeID>
<EventTypeID>1</EventTypeID>
<GroupTypeID>1</GroupTypeID>
<DateAdded>2011-01-09T08:25:02.72-06:00</DateAdded>
<AddedBy>B Jordan</AddedBy>
<DateChanged>2012-01-08T08:34:23.2-06:00</DateChanged>
<ChangedBy>J Smith</ChangedBy>
</Data>
<Data>
<BookingDate>2012-01-06T00:00:00-06:00</BookingDate>
<StartBookingDate>2012-01-06T00:00:00-06:00</StartBookingDate>
<RoomDescription>Dorm A1</RoomDescription>
<TimeEventStart>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</TimeEventStart>
<TimeEventEnd>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</TimeEventEnd>
<GroupName>Family Retreat</GroupName>
<EventName>Family Retreat</EventName>
<SetupTypeDescription>(none)</SetupTypeDescription>
<SetupCount>27</SetupCount>
<ReservationID>1222</ReservationID>
<EventCoordinator />
<GroupID>12</GroupID>
<VIP xml:space="preserve"> </VIP>
<VIPEvent>false</VIPEvent>
<ClosedAllDay>false</ClosedAllDay>
<OpenTime>1900-01-01T00:00:00-06:00</OpenTime>
<CloseTime>1900-01-01T00:00:00-06:00</CloseTime>
<GroupTypeDescription>Religious - Conference</GroupTypeDescription>
<EventTypeDescription>Retreat</EventTypeDescription>
<Contact>Phyllis 0000000000</Contact>
<AltContact />
<BookingID>29512</BookingID>
<TimeBookingStart>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</TimeBookingStart>
<TimeBookingEnd>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</TimeBookingEnd>
<GMTStartTime>2012-01-06T15:00:00-06:00</GMTStartTime>
<GMTEndTime>2012-01-07T00:00:00-06:00</GMTEndTime>
<BuildingCode>Asb</BuildingCode>
<Building>Dormitory</Building>
<RoomCode>Asb A1</RoomCode>
<Room>Dorm A1</Room>
<RoomID>7</RoomID>
<BuildingID>20</BuildingID>
<StatusID>1</StatusID>
<StatusTypeID>-14</StatusTypeID>
<EventTypeID>1</EventTypeID>
<GroupTypeID>1</GroupTypeID>
<DateAdded>2011-01-09T08:25:02.72-06:00</DateAdded>
<AddedBy>P Jordan</AddedBy>
<DateChanged>2012-01-08T08:34:23.2-06:00</DateChanged>
<ChangedBy>J Smith</ChangedBy>
</Data>
</Bookings>"
}
I want to be able to reorder the info that comes back into an array so that I can group the events by date and then order them by EventName. Below is my code:
$xml = simplexml_load_string($result->GetBookingsResult);
$list='';
foreach($xml as $event){
$st_date = lvmDateFormat($event->TimeBookingStart,'name');//function reformats date
$en_date = lvmDateFormat($event->TimeBookingEnd,'name');
$name = lvmDateFormat($event->TimeBookingStart,'cal');
$ename = $event->EventName;
$events[lvmDateFormat($event->TimeBookingStart,'name')][$st_date] = array(
'EventName' => $ename
,'Date' => $name
,'TimeEventStart' => $st_date
,'TimeEventEnd' => $en_date
);
}
If I echo out $event->EventName; it looks fine, but when I try to add it to an array it comes back like this:
[EventName] => SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[0] => UMW Training Event
)
What am I doing wrong here?
Ta

Answer 1

When you echo an object, it is converted to a string. So it will appear (because SimpleXMLElement defines a __toString() method internally) like you want it to - but the type of the $event variable is still an object of type SimpleXMLElement.
You can easily store it as a string in the array, if you cast it to a string. Try changing this line:
$ename = $event->EventName;
...to this:
$ename = (string) $event->EventName;