note 2215 deleted from fread by ronabop

I am trying to use the fread() function to read an XML-like file, sort of a homegrown parser. The files and code samples are below. The output is stripped of the "tags" I had planned to use to parse for and grab the values between. When I change the file name to a olumnar- formatted text file, the output is has white spaces truncated, and appears as it should be. HOW CAN I AVOID THE TAG STRIPPING USING fread()? >>> SAMPLE CODE below: $CongressXml = "congress.xml"; if ( file_exists ( $CongressXml ) ) { $fp = fopen ( $CongressXml, 'r' ) or die( "Cannot open congress.xml" ); $buffer = fread( $fp, filesize( $CongressXml ) ); fclose( $fp ); $LenOfBuffer = StrLen( $buffer ); $iEndPos = 0; $iStartPos = 0; } else { echo "Missing congress.xml"; } >>> congress.xml sample below: <REPRESENTATIVE> <STATE>AK</STATE> <FULLNAME>Alaska</FULLNAME> <LASTNAME>Young</LASTNAME> <FIRSTNAME>Don</FIRSTNAME> <DISTRICT>AL</DISTRICT> <PARTY>R</PARTY> <EMAIL>Don.Young@mail.house.gov</EMAIL> </REPRESENTATIVE> >>> Sample output from fread() of congress.xml: AK Alaska Young Don AL R Don.Young@mail.house.gov AL Alabama Callahan Sonny 1 R sonny.callahan@mail.house.gov AL Alabama Everett Terry 2 R Terry.Everett@mail.house.gov AL Alabama Riley Bob 3 R >>> congressemails.txt sample below: AK R Stevens, Ted Senator_Stevens@stevens.senate.gov *AK R Murkowski, Frank http://murkowski.senate.gov/webmail.html AL R Sessions, Jeff senator@sessions.senate.gov AL R Shelby, Richard senator@shelby.senate.gov >>> Sample output from fread() of congressemails.txt: AK R Stevens, Ted Senator_Stevens@stevens.senate.gov *AK R Murkowski, Frank http://murkowski.senate.gov/webmail.html AL R Sessions, Jeff senator@sessions.senate.gov AL R Shelby, Richard senator@shelby.senate.gov AR D Lincoln, Blanche blanche_lincoln@lincoln.senate.gov AR R Hutchinson,