How can I change the name of an XML tag with PHP/SimpleXML?

Question

With SimpleXML, it is possible to add/change/delete attributes of a selected Node «on the fly» by typing e.g.

$child->addAttribute('n', $occ_order);

is there a way to alter the name of the $child element as well? I would expect something like

$child->setName('newTagName');

but I cannot find a corresponding function in the API.

Thanks in advance for your hints!

possible duplicate of [How do you rename a tag in SimpleXML through a DOM object?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6694956/how-do-you-rename-a-tag-in-simplexml-through-a-dom-object) — Gordon, Sep 14 '11 at 12:07

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 01 '12 at 19:30

1

You can remove it with unset() if you know exactly where it is i.e. $main->target would be removed as unset($main->target) and add it again with addchild() i.e. $main->addchild(name, value).

edited Jul 01 '12 at 19:30

Griwes

8,805
2
43
70

answered Jul 01 '12 at 17:39

user1123382

120
6

1

by the way, if you want it back as a variable i.e. $var you need to use $var = $main ->asXML(); – user1123382 Jul 01 '12 at 17:51

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

From the docs[1] it looks like you can't. And it would be kind of weird if you could too - changing the name makes it a different/new element. What you want to do is delete that element and add a new one in the same place. However whilst there is a addChild method it doesn't look like there is a delete method. So maybe simpleXML is not the right tool here.

Edit: Indeed simpleXML does not provide a delete method. For info on how to do this, please see this answer[2].

1 http://php.net/manual/en/book.simplexml.php

2 Remove a child with a specific attribute, in SimpleXML for PHP

How can I change the name of an XML tag with PHP/SimpleXML?

2 Answers2

Linked