PHP Manual
Prev |  | Next

# xml_parse_into_struct

(PHP 3 >= 3.0.8, PHP 4, PHP 5)

xml_parse_into_struct -- Parse XML data into an array structure

## Description

int xml_parse_into_struct ( resource parser, string data, array &values [, array &index] )

This 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.

> Note: 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>

And some code to parse the document and generate the appropriate objects:

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); ?>`

After executing `parsemoldb.php`, the variable $db contains an array of AminoAcid objects, and the output of the script confirms that:

    ** 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
            )

    )

Prev | Home | Next
xml_get_error_code | Up | xml_parse