PHP SimpleXMLElement - addChild() Method

The PHP SimpleXMLElement::addChild() method adds a child element to the XML node and returns a SimpleXMLElement of the child.

Syntax

public SimpleXMLElement::addChild(qualifiedName, value, namespace)

Parameters

`qualifiedName`	`Required.` Specify the name of the child element to add.
`value`	`Optional.` If specified, the value of the child element.
`namespace`	`Optional.` If specified, the namespace to which the child element belongs.

Return Value

Returns a SimpleXMLElement object representing the child added to the XML node on success or null on failure.

Example:

The example below shows the usage of SimpleXMLElement::addChild() method.

<?php
$xmlstr = <<<XML
<userlist> 
  <user id="John123" game="lonely">
    <name>John Smith</name>
    <city>New York</city>
  </user>
</userlist> 
XML;

$xml = simplexml_load_string($xmlstr);

$xml->addAttribute('type', 'games');

$user = $xml->addChild('user');
$user->addAttribute('id', 'Marry2015');
$user->addAttribute('game', 'group');

$name = $user->addChild('name', 'Marry G.');

$city = $user->addChild('city', 'London');

echo $xml->asXML();
?>

The output of the above code will be similar to:

<userlist type="games"> 
  <user id="John123" game="lonely">
    <name>John Smith</name>
    <city>New York</city>
  </user>
  <user id="Marry2015" game="group">
    <name>Marry G.</name>
    <city>London</city>
  </user>
</userlist>

❮ PHP SimpleXML Reference