PHP SimpleXML question...iterate through each line of XML determine tag used -

im intermeediate php developer trying take first shots @ parsing through xml. understand basics, looping through nodes , printing them , attributes. 1 thing im lost on how examine , write conditions on tag names in xml document?

so need read each line of xml file:

determine if open <level> tag , replace <ul> determine of <file> tag , replace <li>file</li> determine if </level>tag , replace </ul>

the level tags have attributes telling them apart.

the xml looks this

<level dirname="1">      <file>filename1</file>      <file>filename2</file>      <file>filename3</file>      <file>filename4</file>  </level> <level dirname="2">      <file>filename1</file>      <file>filename2</file>      <file>filename3</file>      <file>filename4</file>  </level> <level dirname="3">      <level dirname = "5">             <file>filename1</file>             <file>filename2</file>             <file>filename3</file>             <file>filename4</file>      </level>  </level> 

it should end looking this:

<ul>      <li>filename1</li>      <li>filename2</li>      <li>filename3</li>      <li>filename4</li>  </ul> <ul>      <li>filename1</li>      <li>filename2</li>      <li>filename3</li>      <li>filename4</li>  </ul> <ul>      <ul>             <li>filename1</li>             <li>filename2</li>             <li>filename3</li>             <li>filename4</li>      </ul>  </ul> 

notice nested <level> tags....because of cant echo <ul> </ul> , loop <li> tags....i have take each element in xml file , decide tag replace with.

any great.

thanks

craig

you need create recursive function. check if there nested levels , if so, generates them same function.

note, need cast file-nodes (string) print them out!

function printlevel(simplexmlelement $e){     $re = '';     if(!empty($e->level)){ // checking nested levels         foreach($e->level $lvl){             $re .= '<ul>'.printlevel($lvl)."</ul>\n";         }     }      if(!empty($e->file)){ // checking files         foreach($e->file $file){             $re .= '<li>'.(string)$file."</li>\n";         }     }     return $re; }  $xml = new simplexmlelement($xmltext); echo printlevel($e); 

this work. xml isn't well-formed! add covering root element , replace ) >!