Question

//create a simple xml object
$xml = new SimpleXMLElement('some valid xml');

//add a my_elements node
$xml->addChild('my_elements');

//an array of elements that will be added to to my_elments
$my_elements = array('element_1', 'element_2', 'element_3');

foreach($my_elements as $element){
   //my_element is only added once as shown below
   $xml->my_elements->addChild('my_element');

   $xml->my_elements->my_element->addChild('something', $element);
}

What I would like this to look like is something like this(shown in xml for ease of reading)

<xml>
   <my_elements>
      <my_element>
          <something>element_1</something>
      </my_element>
      <my_element>
          <something>element_2</something>
      </my_element>
      <my_element>
          <something>element_3</something>
      </my_element>
   </my_elements>
</xml>

But what I am getting is something more like this

<xml>
   <my_elements>
      <my_element>
         <something>element_1</something>
         <something>element_2</something>
         <something>element_3</something>
      </my_element>
   </my_elements>
</xml>

Is it possible to make a separate child node when using addChild with the same name?

Answer 1

Yes, you only need to add the childs to the new added element, not to the existing one. See http://php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.addchild.php :

foreach($my_elements as $element){
   //my_element is only added once as shown below
   $new_my_element = $xml->my_elements->addChild('my_element');
   $new_my_element->addChild('something', $element);
}