Introduction

In this article I describe the PHP XML Parser functions xml_parser_create, xml_parser_free, xml_parser_get_option, xml_parser_set_option and xml__set_character_data_handler . To learn some other PHP XML Parser functions go to:
  1. XML Parser Function in PHP: Part 1
  2. XML Parser Function in PHP: Part 2

PHP xml_parser_create() Function

The PHP XML Parser "xml_parser_create" function is used to create an XML parser.

Syntax
xml_parser_create(encoding)

Parameter of the xml_parser_create function

The parameter of the function is:
Parameter Description
encoding It specifies the output encoding and it's possible values are:
  • ISO-8859-1
    UTF-8
    US-ASCII

Example

An example of the function is:

<?php

$xmlparser = xml_parser_create();

xml_parser_free($xmlparser);

?>

PHP xml_parser_free() Function

The PHP XML Parser "xml_parser_free" function frees an XML parser and this function returns FALSE if parser does not refer to a valid parser, or else it frees the parser and returns TRUE.

Syntax

xml_parser_free(parser)

Parameter of the xml_parser_free function

The parameter of the function is:
Parameter Description
parser It specifies the XML parser to free.

Example

An example of the function is:

<?php

$xmlparser = xml_parser_create();

xml_parser_free($xmlparser);

?>

PHP xml_parser_get_option() Function

The PHP XML Parser "xml_parser_get_option" function is used to get options from an XML parser and this function returns FALSE if parser does not refer to a valid parser otherwise option's value is returned.

Syntax

xml_parser_get_option(parser,option,value)

Parameters of the xml_parser_get_option function

The parameters of the function are:
Parameter Description
parser It specifies the XML parser to use.
option It specifies the option to get and it's possible values are:
  • XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING: It specifies if case-folding is enabled.
  • XML_OPTION_SKIP_TAGSTART: It specifies how many characters should be skipped in the beginning of a tag name.
value It specifies options new value.

Example

An example of the function is:

<?php

$xmlparser = xml_parser_create();

xml_parser_get_option($xmlparser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);

xml_parser_free($xmlparser);

?>


PHP xml_parser_set_option() Function

The PHP XML Parser "xml_parser_set_option" function sets options in an XML parser and this function returns false if parser does not refer to a valid parser otherwise the option is set and true is retuned.

Syntax

xml_parser_get_option(parser,option,value)

Parameters of the xml_parser_set_option function

The parameters of the function are:
Parameter Description
parser It specifies the XML parser to use.
option It specifies the option to set and it's possible values are:
  • XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING: It specifies if case-folding is enabled.
  • XML_OPTION_SKIP_TAGSTART: It specifies how many characters should be skipped in the beginning of a tag name.
  • XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE: It specifies whether to skip values consisting of whitespace characters
  • XML_OPTION_TARGET_ENCODING: It specifies which target encoding to use in this XML parser.
value It specifies options new value.

Example

An example of the function is:

<?php

$xmlparser = xml_parser_create();

xml_parser_set_option($xmlparser, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);

xml_parser_free($xmlparser);

?>

PHP xml__set_character_data_handler Function

The PHP XML Parser "xml__set_character_data_handler" function is used to set up a character data handler and this function returns true on success or false on failure.

Syntax

xml__set_character_data_handler (parser,handler)

Parameters of the xml__set_character_data_handler function

The parameters of the function are:
Parameter Description
parser It specifies the XML parser to use.
handler It specifies a function to be used an an event handler and this "handler" parameter must have two parameters.
  1. Parser: It specifies a variable containing the XML parser calling the handler.
  2. data: It specifies a variable containing the character data from the XML file as a string.

Example

An example of the function is:

XML File

xml-file.jpg

PHP code

<?php

$Parser=xml_parser_create();

function char($parser,$data)

{

echo $data;

}

xml_set_character_data_handler($Parser,"char");

$fp=fopen("test.xml","r");

while ($data=fread($fp,4096))

{

xml_parse($Parser,$data,feof($fp)) or

die (sprintf("XML Error: %s at line %d",

xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($parser)),

xml_get_current_line_number($Parser)));

}

xml_parser_free($Parser);

?>

Output

xml-set-character-data-handler-function-in-php.jpg