Have been watching the forums for a while and they have helped me out quite a lot. But I can't see an answer to this. I have an XML file that I want to process into an mySQL database and think that using SIMPLEXML will be the way forward. To get things going I've picked up an example from a web site but it's not working as I expect, here's the code and XML [code]<?php include 'example.xml'; $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr); echo $xml->movie[0]->plot; // "So this language. It's like..." ?> [/code] [code]<?xml version="1.0"?> <movies> <movie> <title>PHP: Behind the Parser</title> <characters> <character> <name>Ms. Coder</name> <actor>Onlivia Actora</actor> </character> <character> <name>Mr. Coder</name> <actor>El ActÓr</actor> </character> </characters> <plot> So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof of a documentary. </plot> <rating type="thumbs">7</rating> <rating type="stars">5</rating> </movie> </movies>[/code] Instead of putting out "So, this language. It's like....." it displays [quote]Ms. Coder Onlivia Actora Mr. Coder El ActÓr So, this language. It's like, a programming language. Or is it a scripting language? All is revealed in this thrilling horror spoof of a documentary. 7 [/quote] I have PHP 5.1.6. Can anyone suggest why it's putting out more than just the plot tag? Thanks in advance Mark