note 78683 modified in ref.simplexml by danbrown

If you need to do math calculations on values extracted from simplexml document, you might need to cast the value as float to prevent precision loss. Here is an example: <?php $objXML = new SimpleXMLElement('<test x="-123.45"></test>'); //Shows correctly echo $objXML['x']."\n"; //We loose the decimals echo $objXML['x'] + $objXML['x']."\n"; $x = $objXML['x']; //This works if we cast the amounts echo (float)$objXML['x'] + (float)$objXML['x']."\n"; //Calculated on a string, no problem echo "-123.45" + "-123.45"; ?> This is due to the fact that $objXML['x'] is not a string (php would cast it automatically) neither a float, but a SimpleXMLElement object. "echo var_dump($x);" will output this ~~ object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (1) { [0]=> string(7) "-123.45" } ~~ I opened a bug request on php but here is the answer they gave me: ~~ Status: Won't fix The behavior is defined by the engine not the extension. When performing mathematical operations on objects, they are treated as integers. It is up to the user to cast the object to the appropriate type to maintain proper precision. ~~ --was-- If you need to do math calculations on values extracted from simplexml document, you might need to cast the value as float to prevent precision loss. Here is an example: <? $objXML = new SimpleXMLElement('<test x="-123.45"></test>'); //Shows correctly echo $objXML['x']."\n"; //We loose the decimals echo $objXML['x'] + $objXML['x']."\n"; $x = $objXML['x']; //This works if we cast the amounts echo (float)$objXML['x'] + (float)$objXML['x']."\n"; //Calculated on a string, no problem echo "-123.45" + "-123.45"; ?> This is due to the fact that $objXML['x'] is not a string (php would cast it automatically) neither a float, but a SimpleXMLElement object. "echo var_dump($x);" will output this ~~ object(SimpleXMLElement)#3 (1) { [0]=> string(7) "-123.45" } ~~ I opened a bug request on php but here is the answer they gave me: ~~ Status: Won't fix The behavior is defined by the engine not the extension. When performing mathematical operations on objects, they are treated as integers. It is up to the user to cast the object to the appropriate type to maintain proper precision. ~~ http://php.net/manual/en/ref.simplexml.php