PHP Extension

Removing / Deleting Child Nodes from XML

See more XML Examples

Demonstrates various methods for removing child nodes from an XML document.

The input XML, available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/data/fruit.xml, is this:

<root>
    <fruit color="red">apple</fruit>
    <fruit color="green">pear</fruit>
    <veg color="orange">carrot</veg>
    <meat animal="cow">beef</meat>
    <xyz>
        <fruit color="blue">blueberry</fruit>
        <veg color="green">broccoli</veg>
    </xyz>
    <fruit color="purple">grape</fruit>
    <cheese color="yellow">cheddar</cheese>
</root>

PHP Extension

<?php

include("chilkat.php");

$success = false;

$xml = new CkXml();

// The sample input XML is available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/data/fruit.xml
$success = $xml->LoadXmlFile('fruit.xml');
if ($success != true) {
    print $xml->lastErrorText() . "\n";
    exit;
}

// The RemoveChild method removes (discards) all direct
// children having the specified tag:
$xml->RemoveChild('fruit');

// Show the resulting XML:
print 'Result with all direct children having a tag equal to \'fruit\' removed:' . "\n";
print $xml->getXml() . "\n";

// The XML with the "fruit" direct children removed is shown below:
// Notice that the "fruit" node beneath "xyz" was not removed.
// This correct because it was not a direct child of the calling node.

// <root>
//     <veg color="orange">carrot</veg>
//     <meat animal="cow">beef</meat>
//     <xyz>
//         <fruit color="blue">blueberry</fruit>
//         <veg color="green">broccoli</veg>
//     </xyz>
//     <cheese color="yellow">cheddar</cheese>
// </root>

// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Restore the original XML:
$success = $xml->LoadXmlFile('fruit.xml');

// The RemoveChildWithContent method removes the child
// having the exact content specified, regardless of the tag.  
// For example:
$xml->RemoveChildWithContent('pear');

// Show the resulting XML:
print 'Result with the node containing \'pear\' removed:' . "\n";
print $xml->getXml() . "\n";

// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Restore the original XML:
$success = $xml->LoadXmlFile('fruit.xml');

// The RemoveChildByIndex method removes the Nth direct
// child.  Indexing begins at 0.  The "xyz" child is at index 4:
$xml->RemoveChildByIndex(4);

// Show the resulting XML:
// Notice that the entire "xyz" subtree is removed.
print 'Result with the node at index 4 removed:' . "\n";
print $xml->getXml() . "\n";

// --------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Restore the original XML:
$success = $xml->LoadXmlFile('fruit.xml');

// Navigate to the node with tag "xyz"
// xyz is a CkXml
$xyz = $xml->FindChild('xyz');

// Remove the "xyz" subtree making it it's own XML document
// with the "xyz" node at the root:
$xyz->RemoveFromTree();

// Show both XML documents:
print $xyz->getXml() . "\n";
print $xml->getXml() . "\n";

// Also, the TreeId property is an integer value assigned
// to nodes in an XML document.  All nodes belonging to
// the same XML document will have the same TreeId.
// Notice that the "xyz" node now has a different TreeId:
print 'xyz TreeId = ' . $xyz->get_TreeId() . "\n";
print 'xml TreeId = ' . $xml->get_TreeId() . "\n";


?>