#44066 [Opn->Fbk]: Inconsistent behaviour when using unset on SimpleXMLElements

ID: 44066 Updated by: rrichards@php.net Reported By: freddie at witherden dot org -Status: Open +Status: Feedback Bug Type: SimpleXML related Operating System: OS X PHP Version: 5.2.5 New Comment: can you provide an example where removing using offsets doesn't work (i.e. unset($xml->test[0]);)? The other things you mentioned are expected behavior. Calling unset in your prev example just unsets the variable. You must call unset on a member of an SimpleXMLElement in order to remove it (i.e. unset($sXML->test[1]);) Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-02-09 19:26:38] freddie at witherden dot org Here is the problem with XPath: <?php $xml = <<<XML <?xml version='1.0'?> <document> <test>foo</test> <test>bar</test> <test>baz</test> </document> XML; $sXML = simplexml_load_string($xml); $arr = $sXML->xpath('/document/test'); foreach ($sXML->xpath('/document/test') as $element) unset($element); echo $sXML->asXML(); ?> Expected is that there are no <test> nodes, actual is that the document is unchanged. Yet, in the foreach loop if I add $element['attr'] = 'Attribute'; (so replacing the unset line) the document is modified (all of the <test> nodes have <test attr="Attribute">...</test>). So I can modify xpath results yet I can not unset them, The same applies to foreach ($sXML->test as $element), one can change but not unset. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-02-07 00:33:44] rrichards@php.net Thank you for this bug report. To properly diagnose the problem, we need a short but complete example script to be able to reproduce this bug ourselves. A proper reproducing script starts with <?php and ends with ?>, is max. 10-20 lines long and does not require any external resources such as databases, etc. If the script requires a database to demonstrate the issue, please make sure it creates all necessary tables, stored procedures etc. Please avoid embedding huge scripts into the report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2008-02-06 23:28:11] freddie at witherden dot org Description: ------------ Calling unset on a SimpleXMLElement is inconsistent. Assuming $xml is a SimpleXMLElement and test is an 'array'. unset($xml->test); works, yet unset($xml->test[0]); (or any number does not). Elements returned from xpath queries can also not be unset. unset should work on all SimpleXMLElements, irrespective of where in a document they reside/how they were acquired. Failing this behaviour it would seem logical to generate a warning in the instance where one tries to unset an element which can not be unset. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=44066&edit=1