How can I set text value of SimpleXmlElement without using its parent?

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I want to set text of some node found by xpath()

<?php

$args = new SimpleXmlElement(
<<<XML
<a>
  <b>
    <c>text</c>
    <c>stuff</c>
  </b>
  <d>
    <c>code</c>
  </d>
</a>
XML
);

// I want to set text of some node found by xpath 
// Let's take (//c) for example

// convoluted and I can't be sure I'm setting right node
$firstC = reset($args->xpath("//c[1]/parent::*")); 
$firstC->c[0] = "test 1";

// like here: Found node is not actually third in its parent.
$firstC = reset($args->xpath("(//c)[3]/parent::*")); 
$firstC->c[2] = "test 2";

// following won't work for obvious reasons, 
// some setText() method would be perfect but I can't find nothing similar, 
$firstC = reset($args->xpath("//c[1]"));
$firstC = "test"; 

// maybe there's some hack for it?
$firstC = reset($args->xpath("//c[1]"));
$firstC->{"."} = "test"; // nope, just adds child named .
$firstC->{""} = "test"; // still not right, 'Cannot write or create unnamed element'
$firstC["."] = "test"; // still no luck, adds attribute named .
$firstC[""] = "test"; // still no luck, 'Cannot write or create unnamed attribute'
$firstC->addChild('','test'); // grr, 'SimpleXMLElement::addChild(): Element name is required'
$firstC->addChild('.','test'); // just adds another child with name .

echo $args->asXML();

// it outputs:
// 
// PHP Warning:  main(): Cannot add element c number 2 when only 1 such elements exist 
// PHP Warning:  main(): Cannot write or create unnamed element 
// PHP Warning:  main(): Cannot write or create unnamed attribute 
// PHP Warning:  SimpleXMLElement::addChild(): Element name is required 
// <?xml version="1.0"? >
// <a>
//  <b>
//   <c .="test">test 1<.>test</.><.>test</.></c>
//   <c>stuff</c>
//  </b>
//  <d>
//   <c>code</c>
//  <c>test 2</c></d>
// </a>

Answers

You can do with a SimpleXMLElement self-reference:

$firstC->{0} = "Victory!!"; // hackity, hack, hack!
//  -or-
$firstC[0]   = "Victory!!";

found after looking at

var_dump((array) reset($xml->xpath("(//c)[3]")))

This also works with unset operations as outlined in an answer to:

Remove a child with a specific attribute, in SimpleXML for PHP

Thursday, August 18, 2022

papafx4-20918b9ef37f

Not sure why you used namespace notaion in the first place(the sample xml is not namespaced)

In your xpath, you need to select all condition/normal tags, not the condition tag as you were doing... Also, xpath() returns a list, so foreach over it. You don't need to access it as children, unless you want to parse the children of $child. There it would make sense, and it would work as expected.

foreach ($xml->xpath("/Condition/Normal") as $child) {
    echo $child["type"] . "="  . $child->getName()."<br/>";
}

outputs

TEMPERATURE=Normal
LOAD=Normal
POSITION=Normal

Monday, September 12, 2022

codelark

You can probably do it with XPath or something, but SimpleXMLElement::xpath() returns an array that is easy to sort:

usort($xQuery, function ($a, $b) { return strcmp($a->Make, $b->Make); });
foreach ($xQuery as $results) {
    // …
}

Saturday, September 24, 2022

madness

$("#mydropdownlist").val("thevalue");

just make sure the value in the options tags matches the value in the val method.

Saturday, November 5, 2022

tracholar_zuo

Essentially you cant, Numbers, Booleans and Strings are immutable

Monday, November 7, 2022

sds

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How can I set text value of SimpleXmlElement without using its parent?

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