PHP | XMLReader readOuterXml() Function
Last Updated :
18 Mar, 2020
The
XMLReader::readOuterXml() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to read the contents of the current node, including the node itself.
Syntax:
string XMLReader::readOuterXml( void )
Parameters: This function doesn’t accept any parameter.
Return Value: This function returns the contents of current node, including itself, as a string or empty string on failure.
Below examples illustrate the
XMLReader::readOuterXml() function in PHP:
Example 1: In this program, we will read the value of an element without sub-nodes.
- data.xml
html
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<div>
<h1>Hello World</h1>
</div>
- index.php
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
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
// Print the XML content
// Here it will include itself,
// <h1> tags also
echo "The text inside is:" .
$XMLReader->readOuterXml();
?>
- Output:

Example 2: In this program, we will read the value of an element with sub-nodes.
- data.xml
html
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<div>
<h1>Hello World
<sub>G4G</sub>
</h1>
</div>
- index.php
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
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
$XMLReader->read();
// Print the XML content
echo "The text inside is:" .
$XMLReader->readOuterXml();
?>
- Output:

Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/xmlreader.readouterxml.php
Explore
Basics
Array
OOPs & Interfaces
MySQL Database
PHP Advance