PHP SimpleXMLElement::asXML() Function

XML is a mark-up language to share the data across the web, XML is for both human read-able and machine read-able. The SimpleXMLElement class represents an XML document in PHP.
The SimpleXMLElement::asXML() function forms an XML string of the current SimpleXMLElement object and returns it. If you pass a string value representing a file name as a parameter this function saves the XML string in the specified file.
SimpleXMLElement::asXML([$file_name]);

file_name (Optional)
This is a string value representing the file name where you need top store the formed XML string.
This function returns a string representing the XML string in case of success and the boolean value FALSE in case of failure.
If you have passed the optional file name as a parameter then, this function returns TRUE incase of success and FALSE incase of failure.
This function was first introduced in PHP Version 5 and works in all the later versions.
Following example demonstrates the usage of the SimpleXMLIterator::asXML() function.
<html>
   <head>
      <body>
         <?php
            $str = "<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
            <Tutorial>
               <Name>JavaFX</Name>
               <Pages>535</Pages>
               <Author>Krishna</Author>
               <Version>11</Version>
            </Tutorial>";
            $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($str); 
            $xml_string = $xml->asXML();
            print($xml_string); 
         ?>      
      </body>
   </head>   
</html>
</html> 
This will produce following result −
JavaFX 535 Krishna 11

Following is an example of this function with optional parameter file name −
<html>
   <head>
      <body>
         <?php
            $str = "<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?>
            <Tutorial>
               <Name>JavaFX</Name>
               <Pages>535</Pages>
               <Author>Krishna</Author>
               <Version>11</Version>
            </Tutorial>";
            $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($str);
            
            //Adding the child node
            $xml->addChild('Price', '600'); 
            $xml->asXML("output.xml");
         ?>      
      </body>
   </head>   
</html> 

If you verify the contents of the output file output.xml you can observe the added XML element as shown below − 
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<Tutorial>
   <Name>JavaFX</Name>
   <Pages>535</Pages>
   <Author>Krishna</Author>
   <Version>11</Version>
   <Price>600</Price>
</Tutorial> 
In the following example we are trying to add a new record to an XML file −
Data.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Tutorials>
   <Tutorial>
      <Name>JavaFX</Name>
      <Pages>535</Pages>
      <Author>Krishna</Author>
      <Version>11</Version>
   </Tutorial>

   <Tutorial>
      <Name>CoffeeScript</Name>
      <Pages>235</Pages>
      <Author>Kasyap</Author>
      <Version>2.5.1</Version>
   </Tutorial>
</Tutorials> 
Sample.xml
<html>
   <head>      
      <body>         
         <?php
            $doc = new DOMDocument;
            $xml = simplexml_load_file("Data.xml");
            
            //file to SimpleXMLElement 
            $simpleXmlElement = simplexml_import_dom($xml);

            //Adding the child node
            $child = $xml->addChild('Tutorial');
            $child->addChild('Name', 'OpenCV');
            $child->addChild('Pages', '230');
            $child->addChild('Author', 'Maruthi');
            $child->addChild('Version', '5.5');
 
            $xml->asXML("output.xml");

            print("<br><br>");
            foreach($xml->children() as $tut) {        
               print($tut->Name ."<br>");
               print($tut->Pages ."<br>");
               print($tut->Author ."<br>");
               print($tut->Version ."<br>");
               print("<br>");
            }
         ?>
      </body>
   </head>
</html>
This will produce following result −
JavaFX
535
Krishna
11

CoffeeScript
235
Kasyap
2.5.1

OpenCV
230
Maruthi
5.5


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