parse xml file with php and simplexml_load_file forget newline

Question

using php to parse this xml code:

<description><![CDATA[foobar

foobar2

foobar3]]></description>

The problem is when I parse with simplexml_load_file I forget the orginal format:

$content = simplexml_load_file("my_file.xml");
$a = $content->description;
echo $a;

foobar foobar2 foobar3

How can I preserve the original format?

Note: I can't edit the xml file, I must use simplexml_load_file

Are you displaying the result in a browser? – Nigel Ren May 12 '21 at 19:46 — Nigel Ren, May 12 '21 at 19:46
No I am saving the entri in a database – user1066183 May 12 '21 at 21:50 — user1066183, May 12 '21 at 21:50

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 12 '21 at 19:52

Your code is (mostly) correct. You might want to force string conversion, as CDATA is tricky to manage:

$a = "{$content->description}"; // Notice the quotes and braces
echo $a;

Note that, as @NigelRen observed, your output will not appear formatted in a browser. To have it formatted you need to tell the browser HTML parser to do it:

echo "<pre>{$a}</pre>";

or use nl2br().

parse xml file with php and simplexml_load_file forget newline

1 Answers1