(PHP 4, PHP 5)
xml_parse_into_struct — Parse XML data into an array structure
This function parses an XML string 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.
A reference to the XML parser.
A string containing the XML data.
An array containing the values of the XML data
An array containing pointers to the location of the appropriate values in the $values.
xml_parse_into_struct() returns 0 for failure and 1 for success. This is not the same as FALSE and TRUE, be careful with operators such as ===.
Below is an example that illustrates the internal structure of the arrays being generated by the function. We use a simple note tag embedded inside a para tag, and then we parse this and print out the structures generated:
Example #1 xml_parse_into_struct() example
<?php
$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);
?>
When we run that code, the output will be:
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 moldb.xml - small database of molecular information
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<moldb>
<molecule>
<name>Alanine</name>
<symbol>ala</symbol>
<code>A</code>
<type>hydrophobic</type>
</molecule>
<molecule>
<name>Lysine</name>
<symbol>lys</symbol>
<code>K</code>
<type>charged</type>
</molecule>
</moldb>
Example #3 parsemoldb.php - parses moldb.xml into an array of molecular objects
<?php
class AminoAcid {
var $name; // aa name
var $symbol; // three letter symbol
var $code; // one letter code
var $type; // hydrophobic, charged or neutral
function AminoAcid ($aa)
{
foreach ($aa as $k=>$v)
$this->$k = $aa[$k];
}
}
function readDatabase($filename)
{
// read the XML database of aminoacids
$data = implode("", file($filename));
$parser = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
xml_parser_set_option($parser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
xml_parse_into_struct($parser, $data, $values, $tags);
xml_parser_free($parser);
// loop through the structures
foreach ($tags as $key=>$val) {
if ($key == "molecule") {
$molranges = $val;
// each contiguous pair of array entries are the
// lower and upper range for each molecule definition
for ($i=0; $i < count($molranges); $i+=2) {
$offset = $molranges[$i] + 1;
$len = $molranges[$i + 1] - $offset;
$tdb[] = parseMol(array_slice($values, $offset, $len));
}
} else {
continue;
}
}
return $tdb;
}
function parseMol($mvalues)
{
for ($i=0; $i < count($mvalues); $i++) {
$mol[$mvalues[$i]["tag"]] = $mvalues[$i]["value"];
}
return new AminoAcid($mol);
}
$db = readDatabase("moldb.xml");
echo "** Database of AminoAcid objects:\n";
print_r($db);
?>
** Database of AminoAcid objects:
Array
(
[0] => aminoacid Object
(
[name] => Alanine
[symbol] => ala
[code] => A
[type] => hydrophobic
)
[1] => aminoacid Object
(
[name] => Lysine
[symbol] => lys
[code] => K
[type] => charged
)
)