xpath problems

[real_illusions]

I have this, based on a bit of code from php.net:

$sxe = simplexml_load_file("stuff.xml");foreach($sxe->xpath('//data') as $item) {$row = simplexml_load_string($item->asXML());$v = $row->xpath('//title[ =".$pageitem."]');if($v[0]){print $item->title;print $item->sizes;print $item->date;}}

However, this line is giving problems:$v = $row->xpath('//title[ =.$pageitem.]');It basically wont work with the $pageitem variable in there. If I put just text in, then it works. But I need it to be a variable.Any work arounds?

[jeffman]

Concatenate the xpath string before you pass it to xpath?

[real_illusions]

didnt work:$xpathstring = "//name[ =.$pageitem.]";$v = $row->xpath("$xpathstring");Warning: SimpleXMLElement::xpath() [simplexmlelement.xpath]: Invalid expression in (filename) on line 50Which is the 2nd of those 2 lines.

[jeffman]

Is 'name' an element or an attribute?

[real_illusions]

Part of the XML file, for example:<data><title>set title</title><date>october 12th 2010</date><item>some stuff</item><name>nameofstuff</name></data>

[jeffman]

You haven't explained what the purpose of all this is, but I suspect it is simpler than your code makes it. Here's what I suspect you want to do.1. open stuff.xml2. get a reference to the element of kind 'data' that contains a child element of kind 'name' whose value is $pageitem.The following should do that, and without any looping.

$pageitem = 'nameofstuff'; // or whatever$sxe = simplexml_load_file("stuff.xml");$something = $sxe->xpath("//data/name[.='$pageitem']/.."); // returns an array of objectsvar_dump($something[0]);

There might be a more direct way to specify the path (boen will know) but this gets the job done. If this does not do what you want, please explain further.

[real_illusions]

That seems to do the trick.It was basically to echo out some data from an xml file where a certain element's data is matched to a variable.Thanks

[jeffman]

Ah, good. I was guessing about what you needed, but it seemed like a good guess. As you've discovered, xpath can really simplify xml navigation.

[real_illusions]

Ah, good. I was guessing about what you needed, but it seemed like a good guess. As you've discovered, xpath can really simplify xml navigation.

Yeah, when it works

[boen_robot]

Just so you know (in case you didn't figured it out already), the error in your XPath expression was the missing "." and quotes around the value, which DD added in his snippet. As in:

"//name[ =".$pageitem."]";

should've been

"//name[. ='" . $pageitem . "']";

or better yet

"//name[. ='$pageitem']";