Introduction to XML Array
XML Array has defined as a variable array grouping together the same items in the list and contains one or more child items. Arrays being a sequence of elements declared with the same name. A multi-dimensional Array is created for a collection of elements. The arrays are done by creating functions by pairs. Many elements are collected in each pair. DOM creates an XML element array with the parameters attribNamesArray and Values Array.
Syntax
The General Syntax is shown as:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<array
name="integer_array_name">
<item>resource</item>
</array>
</resources>
Arrays are specified using Array elements that have data values on it. In the above Syntax, the array element has a name element and enclosed with the item tags. In this way, we can implement array types in any programming language.
How array work in XML?
Array works well in XML with C# Serialize that adds an attribute to an array element. In other words, we can say, adding objects after serialization. In this article, we have explained using C# and PHP programming concepts to take up XML Array. Let’s say an Array with a Specification like:
cds: An XML may look like this
type:array <cds> ‘mp2’ </cds>
lists: <cds> ‘mp3’ </cds>
type:string <cds> ‘mp4’ </cds>
example:
- ‘mp2’
- mp3’
- mp4’
Let’s take a small sample code to understand the concept. First is our XML file Generation:
<Courses count= “3”>
<Java>little rat</ Java >
<XML>old rat</ XML >
</Courses>
The Corresponding C# code is
[XmlType(“Courses”)]
public class Courses
{
[XmlAttribute(“count”)]
public int Count {get; set; }
[XmlElement(“Courses”)] // now the array element will be as same as the object element Rats.
public string[]Courses { get; set;}
Next, in PHP to convert XML file document into array structure: To do so, we need some functions to perform the task which is listed below:
- file_get_contents (): This reads a file as string type helps to read the content of an XML file.
- simplexml_load_string (): parsing an XML file to take relevant information as we have more APIs in the websites.
- json_ encode: It returns JSON values after encoding.
- json_decode: It returns the decoded value.
Using multiple files in a single Array
<?PHP
foreach ($fil as $file) {
$xmlf= simplexml_load_file($file);
XMLToArrayFlat($xmlf, $xmlarray, $fil.':', true);
}
?>
Finally, in all the below examples, we have applied a property declared as arrays. Sometimes, a collection modifies the outer elements and, lastly, applying Serialization to an object.
Examples
The following Sections talks much about XML array and Attributes implemented in Serializable and PHP language.
Example #1
android.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<string name="Welcome">Welcome! To my home page</string>
<string name="Web_name">General View</string>
<string-array name="EuropeCountry_array">
<List>Berlin</List>
<List>Vienna</List>
<List>Stockholm</List>
<List>Richard Nixon</List>
<List>Prague</List>
<List>Rome</List>
<List>Budapest</List>
<List>Amsterdam</List>
<List>London</List>
<List>Norway</List>
<List>Denmark</List>
</string-array>
</resources>
Explanation
Here is a simple example with an array list of different countries in the Android Application.
Output:
Example #2 – Array Using PHP
new.php
<?php
libxml_use_internal_errors(TRUE);
$objDoc = simplexml_load_file("lib.xml");
if ($objDoc === FALSE) {
echo "Gives an error in the XML file.\n";
foreach(libxml_get_errors() as $error) {
echo $error->message;
}
exit;
}
$objJsonDoc = json_encode($objDoc);
$arrOutput = json_decode($objJsonDoc, TRUE);
echo "<pre>";
print_r($arrOutput);
?>
lib.xml
?xml version='1.0'?>
<Library>
<Department id="1">
<Bookname>XML Introduction</Bookname>
<author>O'reilla</author>
<address>
<Door>4201 Greenland Avenue</Door>
<city>New York</city>
<Country>United States</Country>
</address>
</Department>
<Department id="2">
<Bookname>Data Warehouse</Bookname>
<author>Mac meihelline</author>
<address>
<Door>5840 texas House</Door>
<city>Dallas</city>
<Country> Canada</Country>
</address>
</Department>
</Library>
Explanation
In the above code, we have used a function lib to enable users to handle errors. This allows us to catch XML errors. Next, is the XML load file, which loads an XML file, and the respective path is given in that. If it is parsed successfully, it returns True, if-else False. Following this line, the next statement, JSON, converts the XML object into JSON format. Therefore, the final output would be like this.
Output:
Example #3 – Converting Multidimensional Array into XML file
$array = array (
'School' => 'Bostin Secondary School',
'Student' => array (
'0' => array (
'Stdname' => 'Antony Sukesh',
'age' => '18'
),
'1' => array (
'Stdname' => 'Mahesh Das',
'age' => '20'
),
'2' => array (
'Stdname' => 'Subhashree vasin',
'age' => '19'
),
'3' => array (
'Stdname' => 'Vamssi Narayanan',
'age' => '21'
)
)
);
Function generation in a class PHP
function doXML($info) {
$head = $info['School'];
$rcount = count($info['Student']);
$xdc = new DOMDocument();
$root = $xdc -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement("EDUCBA"));
$root -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement("Welcome", $Welcome));
$root -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement("No.of Std", $rcount));
$tabU = $root -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement('count educba'));
foreach($info['Student'] as $uu) {
if (!empty($uu)) {
$tabU = $tabU -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement('Student'));
foreach($uu as $kk => $val) {
$tabU -> appendChild($xdc ->
createElement($kk, $val));
}
}
}
$xdc -> formatOutput = true;
$fi_name = str_replace(' ', '_', $welcome) . '.xml';
$xdc -> save($fi_name);
return $fi_name;
}
Explanation
Here we are setting the root element bypassing the argument, and by default, all the key names of the array are named with an underscore. After executing this piece of code, the result would look like this:
Output:
Example #4
mol.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Chemical>
<molSubstance>
<mname>Hydrogen</mname>
<msymbol>H</msymbol>
<Mno> 1 </Mno>
<type>hydrophobic</type>
</molSubstance>
<molSubstance>
<mname>Lithium</mname>
<msymbol>li</msymbol>
<Mno>3</Mno>
<type>Sub-atomic</type>
</molSubstance>
</Chemical>
PHP file parsing an array
<?php
class LacticAcid {
var $mname;
var $msymbol;
var $Mno;
var $type;
function LacticAcid ($la)
{
foreach ($la as $l=>$vi)
$this->$l = $la[$l];
}
}
function readDb($filename)
{
$dt = implode("", file($filename));
$par = xml_parser_create();
xml_parser_set_option($par, XML_OPTION_CASE_FOLDING, 0);
xml_parser_set_option($par, XML_OPTION_SKIP_WHITE, 1);
xml_parse_into_struct($par, $dt, $val, $tags);
xml_parser_free($par);
foreach ($tags as $kk=>$val) {
if ($kk == "molecule") {
$molrang = $val;
for ($k=0; $k < count($molrang); $k+=2) {
$offset = $molrang[$k] + 1;
$leng = $molrang[$k + 1] - $offset;
$tdb[] = parseMol(array_slice($val, $offset, $leng));
}
} else {
continue;
}
}
return $tdb;
}
function parse($mval)
{
for ($k=0; $k < count($mval); $k++) {
$mol[$mval[$k]["tag"]] = $mval[$k]["value"];
}
return new LacticAcid($mol);
}
$dba = readDatabase("mol.xml");
echo "** Database of LacticAcid objects:\n";
print_r($dba);
?>
Explanation
The output of the above code script shows like this:
Output:
Conclusion
This article discussed how to use an array in an XML file using simple programming examples. This is useful when it comes to parsing and doing any manipulation on XML Documents. Coming to String array, they are more powerful, and the android application makes use of it to store string data in resource files.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to XML Array. Here we discuss how to use an array in an XML file using simple programming examples and outputs. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –
