PHP - XMLReader::read() Function

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:: read() function of the XMLReader class moves the cursor on the current XML file to the next node.

Syntax

XMLReader::read();

Parameters

This function does not accept any parameters.

Return Values

This function returns a boolean value which is TRUE in case of success and FALSE in case of failure.

PHP Version

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

Example

Following example demonstrates the usage of the XMLReader::read() function −

mydata.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<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 = $reader->readInnerXml();
   print($data);

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

This will produce following result −

<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>

Example

Following is another example of this function −

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 of XML document
   $reader->read(); 
   $reader->read();
   $reader->next("phone");

   //Reading the contents
   print($reader->name."\n");
   print($reader->readString());

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

This will produce following result −

phone
9848022338