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PHP | SimpleXMLElement asXML() Function

Pre-requisite: Read XML

The SimpleXMLElement::asXML() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which returns well-formed XML string from a SimpleXML object.

Syntax:

mixed SimpleXMLElement::asXML( $filename )

Parameters: This function accepts single parameter $filename which is optional. It specified this function save data to the file instead of returning as XML.

Return Value: It returns a String representing the data and filename if it is specified on success or returns False on failure.

Note: This function is available for PHP 5.0.1 and newer version.

Example 1:




<?php
  
// Loading XML document to $user
$user = <<<XML
  
<user>
    <username> user123 </username>
    <name> firstname lastname </name>
    <phone> +91-XXXXXXXXXX </phone>
    <detail> 
        I am John Doe. Live in Kolkata, India.
    </detail>
</user>
XML;
  
// Creating new SimpleXMLElement object from $user
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($user);
  
// Printing as XML
echo $xml->asXML();
echo $xml->asXML('savexmltofile.xml');
  
?>


Output:

user123 firstname lastname +91-XXXXXXXXXX I am John Doe. Live in Kolkata, India. 1

Saved XML file:

Example 2: Save XML filename by using sample.xml




<?xml version="1.0"?>
<user>
    <username> user123 </username>
    <name> firstname lastname </name>
    <phone> +91-XXXXXXXXXX </phone>
    <detail
        I am John Doe. Live in Kolkata, India.
    </detail>
</user>


index.php




<?php
  
// Loading XML document from sample.xml to
// $user and creating new SimpleXMLElement
// object
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement("sample.xml", 0, TRUE);
  
// Printing data as xml document
echo $xml->asXML();
echo $xml->asXML('savexmltofile.xml');
  
?>


Output:

user123 firstname lastname +91-9876543210 I am John Doe. Live in Kolkata, India. 1

Saved XML file:

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