PHP - XMLReader::expand() Function

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Definition and Usage

XML is a mark-up language to share the data across the web, XML is for both human read-able and machine read-able. XMLReader extension is used to read/retrieve the contents of an XML document i.e. using the methods of the XMLReader class you can read each node of an XML document.

The XMLReader::expand() function of the XMLReader class copies the contents of the current node and returns it as a DOM object.

Syntax

XMLReader::expand([$base]);

Parameters

Return Values

This function returns an object of the class DOMNode. If there is an issue it returns the boolean value FALSE.

PHP Version

This function was first introduced in PHP Version 5 and works in all the later versions.

Example

Following is an example of this function with optional parameters −

data.xml

<Tutorials>
   <Tutorial>
      <Name>JavaFX</Name>
      <Pages>535</Pages>
      <Author>Krishna</Author>
      <Version>11</Version>
   </Tutorial>

   <Tutorial>
      <Name>CoffeeScript</Name>
      <Pages>235</Pages>
      <Author>Kasyap</Author>
      <Version>2.5.1</Version>
   </Tutorial>
</Tutorials>

sample.php

<?php
   //Creating an XMLReader
   $reader = new XMLReader();

   //Opening a reader
   $reader->open("mydata.xml");

   //Reading the contents
   $reader->read();

   $data = $reader->expand();
   print_r($data);

   //Closing the reader
   $reader->close();
?>

This will produce following result −

DOMElement Object (
   [tagName] => Tutorials
   [schemaTypeInfo] =>
   [nodeName] => Tutorials
   [nodeValue] =>
   JavaFX
   535
   Krishna
   11

   CoffeeScript
   235
   Kasyap
   2.5.1

   [nodeType] => 1
   [parentNode] =>
   [childNodes] => (object value omitted)
   [firstChild] => (object value omitted)
   [lastChild] => (object value omitted)
   [previousSibling] =>
   [nextSibling] =>
   [attributes] => (object value omitted)
   [namespaceURI] =>
   [prefix] =>
   [localName] => Tutorials
   [baseURI] =>
   [textContent] =>

   JavaFX
   535
   Krishna
   11

   CoffeeScript
   235
   Kasyap
   2.5.1
)

Example

Following is another example of this function −

<?php
   //Creating an XMLReader
   $reader = new XMLReader();

   $data = "<data> 
      <name>Raju</name> 
      <age>32</age> 
      <phone>9848022338</phone> 
      <city>Hyderabad</city>
   </data> ";

   //Opening a reader
   $reader->xml($data);

   //Reading the contents
   $reader->read();

   $data = $reader->expand();
   print_r($data);

   //Closing the reader
   $reader->close();
?>

This will produce following result −

DOMElement Object (
   [tagName] => data
   [schemaTypeInfo] =>
   [nodeName] => data
   [nodeValue] =>
   Raju
   32
   9848022338
   Hyderabad

   [nodeType] => 1
   [parentNode] =>
   [childNodes] => (object value omitted)
   [firstChild] => (object value omitted)
   [lastChild] => (object value omitted)
   [previousSibling] =>
   [nextSibling] =>
   [attributes] => (object value omitted)
   [namespaceURI] =>
   [prefix] =>
   [localName] => data
   [baseURI] =>
   [textContent] =>
   Raju
   32
   9848022338
   Hyderabad
)

Example

mydata.xml

<data> 
   <name>Raju</name> 
   <age>32</age> 
   <phone>9848022338</phone> 
	<city>Hyderabad</city>
</data> 

sample.php

<?php
   //Creating an XMLReader
   $reader = new XMLReader();

   //Opening a reader
   $reader->open("test.xml");

   //Reading the contents
   $reader->read();
   $ele = $reader->expand();

   $doc = new DOMDocument(); 
   $doc->appendChild($ele); 

   $res = $doc->saveXML();
   print_r($res);

   //Closing the reader
   $reader->close();
?>

This will produce following result −

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<data>
   <name>Raju</name>
   <age>32</age>
   <phone>9848022338</phone>
   <city>Hyderabad</city>
</data>