Get value from xml using xpath

Question

I have word document converted to xml file, this is a part of this file:

<w:tc>
    <w:tcPr>
        <w:tcW w:w="2130" w:type="dxa"/>
    </w:tcPr>
    <w:p w:rsidR="00255D05" w:rsidRPr="00FF409F" w:rsidRDefault="00255D05" w:rsidP="00D041E7">
        <w:pPr>
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
        </w:pPr>
        <w:r w:rsidRPr="00FF409F">
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
            <w:t>myWantedText</w:t>
        </w:r>
    </w:p>
</w:tc>

I am trying to get the value of 'myWantedText', so far i have tried:

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($fileContents);
foreach($xml->xpath('//w:t') as $t) {
    var_dump($t);
}

but all i am getting is a punch of object(SimpleXMLElement)[2]

user764357 · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-23 05:29:11Z

You are lacking a namespace in the input XML and a declaration as Stuart Pointed out. Below is your XML, with the correct Word XML Namespace.

<?php

$str = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<w:tc xmlns:w="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml">
    <w:tcPr>
        <w:tcW w:w="2130" w:type="dxa"/>
    </w:tcPr>
    <w:p w:rsidR="00255D05" w:rsidRPr="00FF409F" w:rsidRDefault="00255D05" w:rsidP="00D041E7">
        <w:pPr>
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
        </w:pPr>
        <w:r w:rsidRPr="00FF409F">
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
            <w:t>myWantedText</w:t>
        </w:r>
    </w:p>
</w:tc>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($str);
$xml->registerXPathNamespace('w', 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/word/2003/wordml');
foreach($xml->xpath('//w:t') as $t) {
    var_dump($t);
}
?>

Output:

object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (1) {
  [0]=>
  string(12) "myWantedText"
}

You can see this working here: http://codepad.org/YRIO6uk3

I have copied and pasted your code entirely, but all i get is object(SimpleXMLElement)[2]
@alliawwad change var_dump($t); to echo $t; This is a good answer!

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:05:14Z

The problem is that the character ":" messes up the call to xpath.

As a workaround you can do:

<?php

$str = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<w:tc>
    <w:tcPr>
        <w:tcW w:w="2130" w:type="dxa"/>
    </w:tcPr>
    <w:p w:rsidR="00255D05" w:rsidRPr="00FF409F" w:rsidRDefault="00255D05" w:rsidP="00D041E7">
        <w:pPr>
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
        </w:pPr>
        <w:r w:rsidRPr="00FF409F">
            <w:rPr>
                <w:rFonts w:hint="cs"/>
                <w:sz w:val="36"/>
                <w:szCs w:val="36"/>
                <w:rtl/>
                <w:lang w:bidi="ar-JO"/>
            </w:rPr>
            <w:t>myWantedText</w:t>
        </w:r>
    </w:p>
</w:tc>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($str);
$result = $xml->xpath('/*');
echo $result[0]->p->r->t;
?>

OUTPUT:

myWantedText

UPDATE:
Lego's answer is better than this work around!

i get Trying to get property of non-object , and if i try var_dump($result[0]->p->r); i get null
@alliawwad I updated the answer to contain the full code (including output). Are you doing the exact same thing ?
: is perfectly valid in XML as the Namespace delimiter. Apart from the missing namespace declaration, there's nothing wrong with the XML

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