How to change value of any XML node by XPath in PHP?

Question

I want update value of a specific node in XML with help use SimpleXMLElement class and XPath query in PHP PL. I need to change text from nodes of SimpleXML with help XPath in PHP. How I can to do it?

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Answer 1

Interpret a string of XML into an SimpleXMLElement object:

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlDataStr);

Assume XML data are in $xmlDataStr string variable.

Using XPath query:

$qryRsl = $xml->xpath('/some/xpath/query/here');

The query results are stored as SimpleXMLElement elements in an $qryRsl array.

Iterate over and change all selected nodes:

foreach ($qryRsl as $curRslItm) {
    $curRslItm[0] = 'New txt';
}

Or like this:

foreach ($qryRsl as $key => $val) {
    $qryRsl[$key][0] = 'New txt';
}

Or any specified item, if it has in query result array:

if (isset($qryRsl[3])) {
    $qryRsl[3][0] = 'New txt';
}

Take a look at the changed XML:

echo $xml->asXML();