(3.0.8 - 3.0.18 only, PHP 4 >= 4.0.0)
xml_parse_into_struct -- Parse XML data into an array structureThis function parses an XML file into 2 parallel array structures, one (index) containing pointers to the location of the appropriate values in the values array. These last two parameters must be passed by reference.
Below is an example that illustrates the internal structure of the arrays being generated by the function. We use a simple note tag embeded inside a para tag, and then we parse this an print out the structures generated:
$simple = "<para><note>simple note</note></para>"; $p = xml_parser_create(); xml_parse_into_struct($p,$simple,$vals,$index); xml_parser_free($p); echo "Index array\n"; print_r($index); echo "\nVals array\n"; print_r($vals); |
Index array Array ( [PARA] => Array ( [0] => 0 [1] => 2 ) [NOTE] => Array ( [0] => 1 ) ) Vals array Array ( [0] => Array ( [tag] => PARA [type] => open [level] => 1 ) [1] => Array ( [tag] => NOTE [type] => complete [level] => 2 [value] => simple note ) [2] => Array ( [tag] => PARA [type] => close [level] => 1 ) ) |
Event-driven parsing (based on the expat library) can get complicated when you have an XML document that is complex. This function does not produce a DOM style object, but it generates structures amenable of being transversed in a tree fashion. Thus, we can create objects representing the data in the XML file easily. Let's consider the following XML file representing a small database of aminoacids information:
Example 2. parsemoldb.php - parses moldb.xml into and array of molecular objects
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