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Mixing processing instructions and element nodes gives inconsistent results in SimpleXML #12168
Description
Description
The following code:
<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<container>
<x/><?hello world?>
</container>
XML;
$sxe = simplexml_load_string($xml);
var_dump($sxe->children());
// x and hello swapped
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<container>
<?hello world?><x/>
</container>
XML;
$sxe = simplexml_load_string($xml);
var_dump($sxe->children());Resulted in this output:
object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
["x"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (0) {
}
["hello"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
}
}
object(SimpleXMLElement)#1 (1) {
["x"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
}
}
But I expected this output instead:
object(SimpleXMLElement)#2 (2) {
["x"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#4 (0) {
}
["hello"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#5 (0) {
}
}
object(SimpleXMLElement)#1 (1) {
["hello"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (0) {
}
["x"]=>
object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (0) {
}
}
PHP Version
PHP 8.1+
Operating System
Linux
Activity
ndossche commentedon Sep 10, 2023
This is because
php_sxe_iterator_fetchlets the iterator point at the first element node. That's right forSXE_ITER_ELEMENTbut not forSXE_ITER_NONE, especially considering that forwards iterating from that point does not skip PIs.EDIT: and so, this problem also occurs with comments... (https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=43542 looks somewhat related in that it points out a similar inconsistency wrt iterators & nodes)
Truta446 commentedon Oct 27, 2026
Fix phpGH-12168: Include leading non-element nodes in children() prop…