Combine “starts-with” a node with “contains” a value PHP xpath search - PHP

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Combine “starts-with” a node with “contains” a value PHP xpath search

simplexml xpath add tag

6 years ago David (imported from SE)

I have a PHP xpath query that works well for searching on a single node of my XML file. In simplified form, it looks like this:

$url = 'myfile.xml';
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url);
$xml->registerXPathNamespace("h", "https://library.example.ac.uk");

$found = $xml->xpath("//h:row[h:AUTHOR1[contains(.,'$search')]]");
...

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$url = 'myfile.xml';$xml = simplexml_load_file($url);$xml->registerXPathNamespace("h", "https://library.example.ac.uk");​$found = $xml->xpath("//h:row[h:AUTHOR1[contains(.,'$search')]]");...

The limitation is that it only finds AUTHOR1, but this XML library catalog file can contain multiple authors, like this sample entry:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<table xmlns="https://library.example.ac.uk">
  <row>
    <AUTHOR1>FABER, Adele</AUTHOR1>
    <AUTHOR2>MAZLISH, Elaine</AUTHOR2>
    <AUTHOR3></AUTHOR3>
    <AUTHOR4></AUTHOR4>
    <CALLNO>306.875 FAB</CALLNO>
    <COPIES>1</COPIES>
    <COPYNO>1.</COPYNO>
    <CUSTOM1>2011</CUSTOM1>
    <CUSTOM2></CUSTOM2>
    <EDITION></EDITION>
    <IBARCODE>856490.</IBARCODE>
    <ISBN>0380705273</ISBN>
    <PLACEPUBL>New York</PLACEPUBL>
    <PUBLISHER>Norton</PUBLISHER>
    <SUBJECT1>Child rearing</SUBJECT1>
    <SUBJECT2>Sibling rivalry</SUBJECT2>
    <SUBJECT3>Psychology</SUBJECT3>
    <SUBJECT4></SUBJECT4>
    <SUBJECT5></SUBJECT5>
    <TITLE>Siblings without rivalry : how to help your children live together so you can live too</TITLE>
    <WEBSITE/>
    <WORDCOUNT>0</WORDCOUNT>
  </row>
</table>

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><table xmlns="https://library.example.ac.uk">  <row>    <AUTHOR1>FABER, Adele</AUTHOR1>    <AUTHOR2>MAZLISH, Elaine</AUTHOR2>    <AUTHOR3></AUTHOR3>    <AUTHOR4></AUTHOR4>    <CALLNO>306.875 FAB</CALLNO>    <COPIES>1</COPIES>    <COPYNO>1.</COPYNO>    <CUSTOM1>2011</CUSTOM1>    <CUSTOM2></CUSTOM2>    <EDITION></EDITION>    <IBARCODE>856490.</IBARCODE>    <ISBN>0380705273</ISBN>    <PLACEPUBL>New York</PLACEPUBL>    <PUBLISHER>Norton</PUBLISHER>    <SUBJECT1>Child rearing</SUBJECT1>    <SUBJECT2>Sibling rivalry</SUBJECT2>    <SUBJECT3>Psychology</SUBJECT3>    <SUBJECT4></SUBJECT4>    <SUBJECT5></SUBJECT5>    <TITLE>Siblings without rivalry : how to help your children live together so you can live too</TITLE>    <WEBSITE/>    <WORDCOUNT>0</WORDCOUNT>  </row></table>
show all 27 lines

My current search will only find “FABER”, but I would like it also to be able to find “MAZLISH”.

I thought this would be a job for starts-with, but no syntax I have tried will work. I thought I could do something like:

$xml->xpath("//h:row[h:[starts-with(name(), 'AUTHOR')[contains(...

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$xml->xpath("//h:row[h:[starts-with(name(), 'AUTHOR')[contains(...

But I cannot get any variant of that to work. (The problem is not the nesting of quotes or brackets, I’m quite sure.) And I have tried both name and local-name for the starts-with bit.

So! How to find hits on any of the AUTHOR1, AUTHOR2, AUTHORn… nodes?

1 Answer