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<title>Interprets an XML file into an object</title>
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<h1 class="refname">simplexml_load_file</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">simplexml_load_file</span> — <span class="dc-title">
Interprets an XML file into an object
</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type"><a href="class.simplexmlelement.html" class="type SimpleXMLElement">SimpleXMLElement</a></span> <span class="methodname"><strong>simplexml_load_file</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$filename</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$class_name</code><span class="initializer"> = "SimpleXMLElement"</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$options</code><span class="initializer"> = 0</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$ns</code><span class="initializer"> = ""</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">bool</span> <code class="parameter">$is_prefix</code><span class="initializer"> = false</span></span>
]]]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Convert the well-formed XML document in the given file to an object.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">filename</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Path to the XML file
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Libxml 2 unescapes the URI, so if you want to pass e.g.
<em>b&c</em> as the URI parameter <em>a</em>,
you have to call
<em>simplexml_load_file(rawurlencode('http://example.com/?a=' .
urlencode('b&c')))</em>. Since PHP 5.1.0 you don't need to do
this because PHP will do it for you.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">class_name</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
You may use this optional parameter so that
<span class="function"><strong>simplexml_load_file()</strong></span> will return an object of
the specified class. That class should extend the
<span class="type"><a href="class.simplexmlelement.html" class="type SimpleXMLElement">SimpleXMLElement</a></span> class.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">options</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Since PHP 5.1.0 and Libxml 2.6.0, you may also use the
<em><code class="parameter">options</code></em> parameter to specify <a href="libxml.constants.html" class="link">additional Libxml parameters</a>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">ns</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Namespace prefix or URI.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">is_prefix</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
<strong><code>TRUE</code></strong> if <em><code class="parameter">ns</code></em> is a prefix, <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> if it's a URI;
defaults to <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong>.
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns an <span class="type"><a href="language.types.object.html" class="type object">object</a></span> of class <span class="type"><a href="class.simplexmlelement.html" class="type SimpleXMLElement">SimpleXMLElement</a></span> with
properties containing the data held within the XML document, or <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong> on failure.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 errors" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-errors">
<h3 class="title">Errors/Exceptions</h3>
<p class="para">
Produces an <strong><code>E_WARNING</code></strong> error message for each error
found in the XML data.
</p>
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong>
<p class="para">
Use <span class="function"><a href="function.libxml-use-internal-errors.html" class="function">libxml_use_internal_errors()</a></span> to suppress all XML
errors, and <span class="function"><a href="function.libxml-get-errors.html" class="function">libxml_get_errors()</a></span> to iterate over them
afterwards.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-5521">
<p><strong>Example #1 Interpret an XML document</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// The file test.xml contains an XML document with a root element<br />// and at least an element /[root]/title.<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #007700">if (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">file_exists</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'test.xml'</span><span style="color: #007700">)) {<br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$xml </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">simplexml_load_file</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'test.xml'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /> <br /> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">print_r</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$xml</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />} else {<br /> exit(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'Failed to open test.xml.'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />}<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
This script will display, on success:
</p></div>
<div class="example-contents screen">
<div class="cdata"><pre>
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
[title] => Example Title
...
)
</pre></div>
</div>
<div class="example-contents"><p>
At this point, you can go about using <em>$xml->title</em>
and any other elements.
</p></div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.simplexml-load-file-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.simplexml-load-string.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">simplexml_load_string()</a> - Interprets a string of XML into an object</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="methodname"><a href="simplexmlelement.construct.html" class="methodname" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">SimpleXMLElement::__construct()</a> - Creates a new SimpleXMLElement object</span></li>
<li class="member"><a href="simplexml.examples-errors.html" class="xref">Dealing with XML errors</a></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.libxml-use-internal-errors.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">libxml_use_internal_errors()</a> - Disable libxml errors and allow user to fetch error information as needed</span></li>
<li class="member"><a href="simplexml.examples-basic.html" class="xref">Basic SimpleXML usage</a></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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