Question

I have stored the XML path to items in a string like this: response->items->item.

What I need to do is to access an array called $xml_array like this:

$xml_array[‘response’][‘items’][‘item’]

When I write it in the code it works. The thing is that I want it to be done on the fly.

I use this to convert response->items->item to ['response']['items']['item']:

$xml_path = 'response->items->item';
$explode_path = explode('->', $xml_path);
$correct_string = false;

foreach($explode_path as $path) {
   $correct_string .= '[\''.$path.'\']';
}

the problem is that I can’t access $xml_array by doing this: $xml_array[$correct_string]

So I end up with this:

$xml_tag = 'title';
$xml_path = 'response->items->item';

$correct_string = '$items = $xml2array';

$explode_path = explode('->', $xml_path);

foreach($explode_path as $path) {
    $correct_string .= '[\''.$path.'\']';
}
$correct_string .= ';';

eval($correct_string);
foreach($items as $item) {
    echo $item[$xml_tag].'<br />';
}

and access the $xml_array array through $items array. Is there any way I can do this and avoid using eval()?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

$xml_tag = 'title';
$xml_path = 'response->items->item';

$explode_path = explode('->', $xml_path);

$items = $xml2array[$explode_path[0]][$explode_path[1]][$explode_path[2]];

foreach($items as $item) {
    echo $item[$xml_tag].'<br />';
}