Question

I can’t seem to parse my xml today. What have I done wrong? I’m hoping someone can point me to a better/working solution.

I want to parse a bus route xml file that looks like this:

<buses>
<bus>
 <num>12</num>
 <stime>05:00</stime>
 <etime>22:00</etime>
 <freq>?</freq>
 <route>
  <stop>Eonyang Bus Terminal</stop>
  <stop>Chuk Hyub</stop>
  <stop>Eonyang Bolim Hospital</stop>
  <stop>Samnammyeong Residential Center</stop>
  <stop>SinAn</stop>
 </route>
</bus>
<bus>
 <num>13</num>
 <stime>?</stime>
 <etime>?</etime>
 <freq>?</freq>
 <route>
  <stop>KTX Ulsan Station</stop>
  <stop>Driving Hagwon</stop>
  <stop>Jayeon Science High School</stop>
  <stop>Eonyang Bus Stop</stop>
  <stop>Bolim Hospital</stop>
  <stop>Daewon Green Apt.</stop>
</route>

Based on user input of origin and destination, I want to search through the list of stops to find the desired bus or buses, but simply parsing this list is not working.

<?php

$xmlDoc = new DOMDocument();
$xmlDoc->load("buses-new.xml");

$buses=$xmlDoc->getElementsByTagName('bus');


for($i=0; $i<($buses->length); $i++) {

   $route=$buses->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('route');
   $busnum=$buses->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('num');


   foreach( $route->childNodes as $stop) {

      $loc = $stop->nodeValue;

     if (stristr($loc,$orig))  {
         // found a bus with origin
    $origins[$ocount]= $i;
    $ocount++;
     }

     if (stristr($loc,$dest)) {
    // found a bus with destination
    $destination[$dcount] = $i;
    $dcount++;
     }


  } // for all stops

} // for all buses

I’m getting an error on —- foreach( $route->childNodes as $stop) — says in invalid argument.

what is the right way to parse an indeterminate list of childnodes from each route?

Answer 1

You need to do either of the following:

If you know there is only one route element in a bus element:

Change

$route=$buses->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('route');

to

$route=$buses->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('route')->item(0);

If there can be multiple route items, you need to iterate:

$routes = $buses->item($i)->getElementsByTagName('route');
foreach($routes as $route)
{
    foreach( $route->childNodes as $stop) {
    ...
}