Merge two XML files recursively

Question

I want to merge 2 XML files into one recursively. For example :

1st file :

<root>
    <branch1>
        <node1>Test</node1>
    </branch1>
    <branch2>
        <node>Node from 1st file</node>
    </branch2>
</root>

2nd file :

<root>
    <branch1>
        <node2>Test2</node2>
    </branch1>
    <branch2>
        <node>This node should overwrite the 1st file branch</node>
    </branch2>
    <branch3>
        <node>
            <subnode>Yeah</subnode>
        </node>
    </branch3>
</root>

Merged file :

<root>
    <branch1>
        <node1>Test</node1>
        <node2>Test2</node2>
    </branch1>
    <branch2>
        <node>This node should overwrite the 1st file branch</node>
    </branch2>
    <branch3>
        <node>
            <subnode>Yeah</subnode>
        </node>
    </branch3>
</root>

I want the second file to be added to the first file. Of course the merging can be done with any depth of the XML.

I have searched on Google and didn't found a script that worked properly.

Can you help me please ?

Here is a very similar question to what you just asked. There are a couple of solutions mentioned on it - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/648471/merge-two-xml-files-in-java. — Perception, Jun 17 '11 at 12:33
possible duplicate of [SimpleXML: append one tree to another](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3418019/simplexml-append-one-tree-to-another) — Line, Feb 28 '14 at 15:29

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '11 at 12:44

4

xml2array is a function that converts an xml document to an array. Once the two arrays are created, you can use array_merge_recursive to merge them. Then you can convert the array back to xml with XmlWriter (should already be installed).

answered Jun 17 '11 at 12:44

Explosion Pills

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Thanks for your help Tandu but what about if I have attribute in XML ? – Kyryus Jun 17 '11 at 12:46
This method will take some tweaking..this is just to get started. I think that these methods handle attributes too, but maybe not. You would have to test it out. – Explosion Pills Jun 17 '11 at 12:58
this sounds like a horrible solution. – capitalaudience.com Mar 14 '13 at 16:13

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '14 at 15:09

This is nice solution from comment on PHP manual page, working also with attributes too:

function append_simplexml(&$simplexml_to, &$simplexml_from)
{
    foreach ($simplexml_from->children() as $simplexml_child)
    {
        $simplexml_temp = $simplexml_to->addChild($simplexml_child->getName(), (string) $simplexml_child);
        foreach ($simplexml_child->attributes() as $attr_key => $attr_value)
        {
            $simplexml_temp->addAttribute($attr_key, $attr_value);
        }

        append_simplexml($simplexml_temp, $simplexml_child);
    }
}

There also is sample of usage.

Merge two XML files recursively

2 Answers2

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