note 73367 added to function.simplexml-load-file

To correctly extract a value from a CDATA just make sure you cast the SimpleXML Element to a string value by using the cast operator: $xml = '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <rss> <channel> <item> <title><![CDATA[Tom & Jerry]]></title> </item> </channel> </rss>'; $xml = simplexml_load_string($xml); // echo does the casting for you echo $xml->channel->item->title; // but vardump (or print_r) not! var_dump($xml->channel->item->title); // so cast the SimpleXML Element to 'string' solve this issue var_dump((string) $xml->channel->item->title); Above will output: Tom & Jerry object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (0) {} string(11) "Tom & Jerry" ---- Server IP: 194.109.193.76 Probable Submitter: 80.127.20.119 ---- Manual Page -- http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.simplexml-load-file.php Edit -- https://master.php.net/note/edit/73367 Del: integrated -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/integrated Del: useless -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/useless Del: bad code -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/bad+code Del: spam -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/spam Del: non-english -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/non-english Del: in docs -- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367/in+docs Del: other reasons-- https://master.php.net/note/delete/73367 Reject -- https://master.php.net/note/reject/73367 Search -- https://master.php.net/manage/user-notes.php