PHP | XMLWriter startCdata() Function

The XMLWriter::startCdata() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which is used to start the CDATA. This element then needs to be closed with XMLWriter::endCdata() function. CDATA is a block of text which is not parsed by the parser but are recognized as markup.

Syntax:

bool XMLWriter::startCdata( void )

Parameters:This function doesn’t accept any parameter.

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

Below examples illustrate the XMLWriter::startCdata() function in PHP:

Example 1:

<?php

// Create a new XMLWriter instance
$writer = new XMLWriter();

// Create the output stream as PHP
$writer->openURI('php://output');

// Start the document
$writer->startDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');

// Start a element
$writer->startElement('h1');

// Start the Cdata
$writer->startCdata();

// Add value to the Cdata
$writer->text('value');

// End the Cdata
$writer->endCdata();

// End the element
$writer->endElement();

// End the document
$writer->endDocument();
?>

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<h1><![CDATA[value]]></h1>

Example 2:

<?php

// Create a new XMLWriter instance
$writer = new XMLWriter();

// Create the output stream as PHP
$writer->openURI('php://output');

// Start the document
$writer->startDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');

// Start a element
$writer->startElement('p');

// Start the Cdata
$writer->startCdata();

// Add value to the Cdata which is not
// going to be visible on the webpage
$writer->text('This will be secret text,
                 not visible in browser');

// End the Cdata
$writer->endCdata();

// Add value to the element
$writer->text('GeeksforGeeks, portal for
                       Computer Science.');

// End the element
$writer->endElement();

// End the document
$writer->endDocument();
?>

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<p><![CDATA[This will be secret text, not visible in browser]]>
    GeeksforGeeks, portal for Computer Science.
</p>