PHP 5: SimpleXML attributes

Hello, I have what I hope to be a simple question about SimpleXML. Is it possible to get the attributes of a SimpleXML node as an associative array? Consider the following: <?php $sxe = simplexml_load_string('<root attr="value"/>'); print_r($sxe->attributes()); // Gives: simplexml_element Object ( [0] => value ) ?> Is there some way to find out that 'value' is the attribute called 'attr'? In other words, can I iterate over SimpleXML attributes without losing track of what their attribute name is? Or is this a case where I should switch over to DOM? Thanks! -Dan