Problem with an xml format.

Hello,

I am trying to process an xml file with simplexml_load_file()
but I notice that the tags that have hyphens in are not working.

I suspect that it's structure is not valid.

This is some of it's structure:

<product>
<id>346</id>
<name>Covered Call Calculator</name>
<description>Earn blah blah blah to maximize profits.</description>
<keywords>option options covered calls stocks </keywords>
<rank>31</rank>
<merchant-name>Mathew Merten</merchant-name>
<merchant-rank>100</merchant-rank>
<date-added>2007-11-28</date-added>
</product>

I use this code to access the tags:

foreach ($xml->xpath('/marketplace/product') as $prod) {

$sql_ins = "INSERT INTO my_temp ( seller, seller_rank, title, descrip, keywords )
VALUES
( '$prod->merchant-name', '$prod->merchant-rank', '$prod_name', $descrip', '$keywords')";

Now the last 3 tags don't work - I assume that it is because they have hyphens in the name ?


Do I need to change those hyphens to underscores to make them work ?

And what would be the best way to make the change ?

( Notice that the date also has legitimate hyphens)

Thanks.



.

The article at http://www.kombitz.com/2010/02/10/php-xml-problem-hyphen-in-the-element-name/ may help.

I would suggest changing them to underscores. It would work that way. You don't have to worry about the hyphens in the node values. They are fine

The xml file contains approx 2,000 products and is over 2Mb in size.

Do you suggest that I change use preg_replace to change the entire file
before processing with simplexml_load_file() ?

Something like:


$source = file_get_contents( $file_in );

// Locate all tags with hypens

$pattern = '#(\<.+)-( .+\>)#;
$replacement = '$1_$2';

preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $source );

file_put_contents( $file_out, $source );


Not sure if my pattern is correct though.



OR
(Just read that post ;) )

Change my code to $link->{'link-code-html'};

that seems to be the better option.

:)

BTW - would my reg ex have worked ?



.

You could also just use a simple str_replace
$find = array('merchant-name', 'merchant-rank', 'date-added');
$replace = array('merchant_name', 'merchant_rank', 'date_added');
$content = str_replace($find, $replace, $content);

Well,

I tried changing my script to:

$sql_ins = "INSERT INTO my_temp ( seller, seller_rank, title, descrip, keywords )
VALUES
( '$prod->{'merchant-name'}', '$prod->{'merchant-rank'}', '$prod_name', $descrip', '$keywords')";

But the MYSQL failed - I guess it is because of the double use of single quotes ?

Should I use double quotes (excaped)?

eg:

$sql_ins = "INSERT INTO my_temp ( seller, seller_rank, title, descrip, keywords )
VALUES
( \"$prod->{'merchant-name'}\", \"$prod->{'merchant-rank'}\", '$prod_name', $descrip', '$keywords')";

Or would that be a problem ?



.

Use sprintf instead
$sql_ins = sprintf("INSERT INTO my_temp ( seller, seller_rank, title, descrip, keywords )
VALUES
( '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s', '%s')",$prod->{'merchant-name'}, $prod->{'merchant-rank'}, $prod_name, $descrip, $keywords) ;