PHP | XMLReader read() Function

The XMLReader::read() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to move to next node in document. Thus this function is used to traverse through the XML document.

Syntax:

bool XMLReader::read( void )

Parameters: This function doesn’t accepts any parameter.

Return Value: This function returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Below given programs illustrate the XMLReader::read() function in PHP:

Program 1: In this program, we will get the value of a element after traversing the file data.xml

Filename: data.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<div1>
    <h1> GeeksforGeeks </h1>
</div1>

Filename: index.php

<?php

// Create a new XMLReader instance
$XMLReader = new XMLReader();

// Open the XML file
$XMLReader->open('data.xml');

// Iterate through the XML nodes to
// reach the h1 element's text
// (Only four times)
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();

// Print the value of element
echo "The text inside is: "
    . "$XMLReader->value<br>";
?>

Output:

GeeksforGeeks

Program 2: In this program, we will get the name of an element after traversing to it.

Filename: data.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<div1>
    <h1> GeeksforGeeks </h1>
</div1>

Filename: index.php

<?php

// Create a new XMLReader instance
$XMLReader = new XMLReader();

// Open the XML file
$XMLReader->open('data.xml');

// Iterate through the XML nodes
// to reach the h1 element
// (only three times)
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();

// Print name of element
echo "The name of element is: "
     . "$XMLReader->name<br>";
?>

Output:

The name of element is: h1

Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/xmlreader.read.php