PHP | XMLReader read() Function

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The XMLReader::read() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to move to next node in document. Thus this function is used to traverse through the XML document.

Syntax:

bool XMLReader::read( void )

Parameters: This function doesn’t accepts any parameter.

Return Value: This function returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Below given programs illustrate the XMLReader::read() function in PHP:

Program 1: In this program, we will get the value of a element after traversing the file data.xml

Filename: data.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<div1> 
    <h1> zambiatek </h1> 
</div1> 

Filename: index.php

<?php 
  
// Create a new XMLReader instance 
$XMLReader = new XMLReader(); 
  
// Open the XML file 
$XMLReader->open('data.xml'); 
  
// Iterate through the XML nodes to 
// reach the h1 element's text  
// (Only four times) 
$XMLReader->read(); 
$XMLReader->read(); 
$XMLReader->read(); 
$XMLReader->read(); 
  
// Print the value of element 
echo "The text inside is: "
    . "$XMLReader->value<br>"; 
?> 

Output:

zambiatek

Program 2: In this program, we will get the name of an element after traversing to it.

Filename: data.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 
<div1> 
    <h1> zambiatek </h1> 
</div1> 

Filename: index.php

<?php 
  
// Create a new XMLReader instance 
$XMLReader = new XMLReader(); 
  
// Open the XML file 
$XMLReader->open('data.xml'); 
  
// Iterate through the XML nodes 
// to reach the h1 element 
// (only three times) 
$XMLReader->read(); 
$XMLReader->read(); 
$XMLReader->read(); 
  
// Print name of element 
echo "The name of element is: "
     . "$XMLReader->name<br>"; 
?> 