SimpleXMLElement::getChildren

Returns the sub-elements of the current element

Description

public SimpleXMLElementnull SimpleXMLElement::getChildren()

Warning

Prior to PHP 8.0, SimpleXMLElement::getChildren was only declared on the subclass SimpleXMLIterator.

This method returns a SimpleXMLElement object containing sub-elements of the current SimpleXMLElement element.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns a SimpleXMLElement object containing the sub-elements of the current element.

Examples

Example #1 Return the sub-elements of the current element

<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<books>
    <book>
        <title>PHP Basics</title>
        <author>Jim Smith</author>
    </book>
    <book>XML basics</book>
</books>
XML;

$xmlElement = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
for ($xmlElement->rewind(); $xmlElement->valid(); $xmlElement->next()) {
    foreach($xmlElement->getChildren() as $name => $data) {
    echo "The $name is '$data' from the class " . get_class($data) . "\n";
    }
}
?>

The above example will output:

The title is 'PHP Basics' from the class SimpleXMLElement
The author is 'Jim Smith' from the class SimpleXMLElement