PHP Manual: SimpleXMLElement::asXML

Description

public function SimpleXMLElement::asXML(?string $filename = null): string|bool

The asXML method formats the parent object's data in XML version 1.0.

Parameters

filename: If a string value is provided, the function writes the data to the file rather than returning it.

Return Values

If the filename isn't specified, this function returns a string on success and false on error. If the parameter is specified, it returns true if the file was written successfully and false otherwise.

Changelog

Version	Description
8.0.0	`filename` is nullable now.

Examples

Example #1 Get XML

<?php
$string = <<<XML
<a>
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);

echo $xml->asXML();

?>

The above example will output:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<a>
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>

asXML also works on Xpath results:

Example #2 Using asXML() on SimpleXMLElement::xpath() results

<?php
$string = <<<XML
<a>
 <b>
  <c>text</c>
  <c>stuff</c>
 </b>
 <d>
  <c>code</c>
 </d>
</a>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);

/* Search for <a><b><c> */
$result = $xml->xpath('/a/b/c');

foreach ($result as $node) {
    echo $node->asXML();
}
?>