simplexml_load_file

(PHP 5, PHP 7)

Interprets an XML file into an object

SimpleXMLElement simplexml_load_file ( string $filename [, string $class_name = "SimpleXMLElement" [, int $options = 0 [, string $ns = "" [, bool $is_prefix = false ]]]] )

Convert the well-formed XML document in the given file to an object.

Parameters:

filename

Path to the XML file

Note:

Libxml 2 unescapes the URI, so if you want to pass e.g. b&c as the URI parameter a, you have to call simplexml_load_file(rawurlencode('http://example.com/?a=' . urlencode('b&c'))). Since PHP 5.1.0 you don't need to do this because PHP will do it for you.

class_name

You may use this optional parameter so that simplexml_load_file() will return an object of the specified class. That class should extend the SimpleXMLElement class.

options

Since PHP 5.1.0 and Libxml 2.6.0, you may also use the options parameter to specify additional Libxml parameters.

Namespace prefix or URI.

is_prefix

TRUE if ns is a prefix, FALSE if it's a URI; defaults to FALSE.

Returns:

Returns an object of class SimpleXMLElement with properties containing the data held within the XML document, or FALSE on failure.

Warning

This function may return Boolean FALSE, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to FALSE. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

Exception:

Produces an E_WARNING error message for each error found in the XML data.

Use libxml_use_internal_errors() to suppress all XML errors, and libxml_get_errors() to iterate over them afterwards.

Examples:

Interpret an XML document

<?php
// The file test.xml contains an XML document with a root element
// and at least an element /[root]/title.

if (file_exists('test.xml')) {
    $xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');
 
    print_r($xml);
} else {
    exit('Failed to open test.xml.');
}
?>

This script will display, on success:

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
  [title] => Example Title
  ...
)

At this point, you can go about using $xml->title and any other elements.