# simplexml_load_file

(PHP 5, PHP 7)

simplexml_load_file — Interprets an XML file into an object

### Description

simplexml_load_file ( string `$filename` [, string `$class_name` = "SimpleXMLElement" [, int `$options` = 0 [, string `$ns` = "" [, bool `$is_prefix` = `FALSE` ]]]] ) : SimpleXMLElement|false

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

### Parameters

`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 `simplexml_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.

`class_name`

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

`options`

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

`ns`

  Namespace prefix or URI.

`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.

Warning

This function may return Boolean `FALSE`, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to `FALSE`. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

### Errors/Exceptions

Produces an `E_WARNING` error message for each error found in the XML data.

Tip

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

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.2.0 | The optional parameter `is_prefix` was added.

### 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() - Interprets a string of XML into an object
- SimpleXMLElement::__construct() - Creates a new SimpleXMLElement object
- Dealing with XML errors
- libxml_use_internal_errors() - Disable libxml errors and allow user to fetch error information as needed
- Basic SimpleXML usage