php man page for simplexml_load_file

SIMPLEXML_LOAD_FILE(3)							 1						    SIMPLEXML_LOAD_FILE(3)

simplexml_load_file - Interprets an XML file into an object

SYNOPSIS
       SimpleXMLElement  simplexml_load_file  (string  $filename, [string  $class_name = "SimpleXMLElement"], [int  $options], [string	$ns = ""],
       [bool  $is_prefix = false])

DESCRIPTION
	Convert the well-formed XML document in the given file to an object.

PARAMETERS
	      o $filename
		- Path to the XML file

	      Note

		      Libxml 2 unescapes the URI,  so  if  you	want  to  pass	e.g.   b&c  as	the  URI  parameter  a,  you  have  to	call  sim-
		     plexml_load_file(rawurlencode('http://example.com/?a='  .	urlencode('b&c'))).  Since  PHP  5.1.0	you  don't need to do this
		     because PHP will do it for you.

	      o $class_name
		- You may use this optional parameter so that simplexml_load_file(3) will return an object of  the  specified  class.  That  class
		should extend the SimpleXMLElement class.

	      o $options
		- Since PHP 5.1.0 and Libxml 2.6.0, you may also use the $options parameter to specify additional Libxml parameters.

	      o $ns
		- Namespace prefix or URI.

	      o $is_prefix
		- TRUE if $ns is a prefix, FALSE if it's a URI; defaults to FALSE.

RETURN VALUES
	Returns an object of class SimpleXMLElement with properties containing the data held within the XML document, or FALSE on failure.

ERRORS
/EXCEPTIONS
	Produces an E_WARNING error message for each error found in the XML data.

       Tip

	       Use libxml_use_internal_errors(3) to suppress all XML errors, and libxml_get_errors(3) to iterate over them afterwards.

EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      Interpret an XML document

	      <?php
	      // The file test.xml contains an XML document with a root element
	      // and at least an element /[root]/title.

	      if (file_exists('test.xml')) {
		  $xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');

		  print_r($xml);
	      } else {
		  exit('Failed to open test.xml.');
	      }
	      ?>

	       This script will display, on success:

	      SimpleXMLElement Object
	      (
		[title] => Example Title
		...
	      )

	       At this point, you can go about using $xml->title and any other elements.

SEE ALSO
       simplexml_load_string(3), SimpleXMLElement::__construct, "Dealing with XML errors", libxml_use_internal_errors(3), "Basic SimpleXML usage".

PHP Documentation Group 												    SIMPLEXML_LOAD_FILE(3)