Filtering XML file, with PHP - php

Question

I want to load XML file and then remove all <Charge> where <DispositionDate> is bigger/older then 7 years. Date format is YYYY-MM-DD.
XML example:
<BackgroundReports userId="" password="" account="" >
<BackgroundReportPackage>
<Screenings>
<Screening type="criminal" qualifier="">
<CriminalReport>
<CriminalCase>
<AgencyReference type="Docket">
<IdValue>CR-0870120-09</IdValue>
</AgencyReference>
<Charge>
<ChargeId>
<IdValue>1</IdValue>
</ChargeId>
<ChargeOrComplaint>DUI: HIGHEST RTE OF ALC (BAC .16+) 1ST OFF</ChargeOrComplaint>
<ChargeTypeClassification>unknown</ChargeTypeClassification>
<DispositionDate>2009-04-07</DispositionDate>
</Charge>
<Charge>
<ChargeId>
<IdValue>2</IdValue>
</ChargeId>
<ChargeOrComplaint>CARELESS DRIVING</ChargeOrComplaint>
<ChargeTypeClassification>unknown</ChargeTypeClassification>
<DispositionDate>2010-08-02</DispositionDate>
</Charge>
<Charge>
<ChargeId>
<IdValue>3</IdValue>
</ChargeId>
<ChargeOrComplaint>STATUTE: 475 PC</ChargeOrComplaint>
<ChargeTypeClassification>misdemeanor</ChargeTypeClassification>
<OffenseDate>1988-11-05</OffenseDate>
<Disposition>CONVICTED</Disposition>
<DispositionDate>1988-11-09</DispositionDate>
<DispositionDate>1988-11-05</DispositionDate>
<DispositionDate>1988-11-09</DispositionDate>
</Charge>
</CriminalCase>
</CriminalReport>
</Screening>
</Screenings>
</BackgroundReportPackage>
</BackgroundReports>
I know how to open and close/save file using PHP, I don't know how to delete the part i don't want... If anyone would help me with that I would be extremly thankfull!

Answer 1

You can either use SimpleXML, DOM or XSL for it.
Example XML (shortened for brevity (from Revision 1 of your question)):
$xml = <<< XML
<CriminalCase>
<Charge>
<DispositionDate>1995-12-21</DispositionDate>
</Charge>
<Charge>
<DispositionDate>2010-12-21</DispositionDate>
</Charge>
</CriminalCase>
XML;
With SimpleXml
$sevenYearsAgo = new DateTime('-7 years');
$CriminalCase = new SimpleXmlElement($xml);
for ($i = 0; $i < $CriminalCase->Charge->count(); $i++) {
$dispositionDate = new DateTime($CriminalCase->Charge->DispositionDate);
if ($dispositionDate < $sevenYearsAgo) {
unset($CriminalCase->Charge[$i]);
}
}
echo $CriminalCase->asXml();
With DOM
$dom = new DOMDocument;
$dom->loadXml($xml);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
$oldCases = $xpath->query(
sprintf(
'//Charge[substring-before(DispositionDate, "-") < %d]',
date('Y', strtotime('-7 years'))
)
);
foreach ($oldCases as $oldCase) {
$oldCase->parentNode->removeChild($oldCase);
}
echo $dom->saveXml();
With XSLT
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
xmlns:date="http://exslt.org/dates-and-times"
extension-element-prefixes="date">
<xsl:output indent="yes" method="xml"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<CriminalCase>
<xsl:apply-templates />
</CriminalCase>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Charge">
<xsl:if test="date:year(DispositionDate) > date:year() - 7">
<xsl:copy-of select="."/>
</xsl:if>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
and then use this PHP Code to transform it
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$xsl = new XSLTProcessor();
$doc->loadXml($xsl);
$xsl->importStyleSheet($doc);
$doc->loadXml($xml);
echo $xsl->transformToXML($doc);

Answer 2

Here are some tips on how to get started:
You need to parse the XML to something a little easier to work with. PHP has a library called SimpleXML.
Loop through the data and remove the objects which are older than 7 years. To compare dates you have to first convert the dates you got from the XML to something PHP can process as a date. Take a look at strtotime which gives you the timestamp (seconds since 1970, actually 1901 for version > 5.1.0) or DateTime which supports dates before 1970.
To check if the fetched date is older than 7 years ago, you need to (one way) subtract the timestamp with the current timestamp, and see if that value is greater than 7 years in seconds. Or if you use DateTime, you can take a look at DateTime::diff. Remove the objects that you iterate over that are older than 7 years (unset).
To save as XML again, take a look at SimpleXMLElement::asXML
Hope that helps!