Using shuffle() with Simplexml

[etrader]

I get strings via simplexml with this code

$xml = simplexml_load_file("test.xml");

foreach ($xml->title->case as $value){ 
$param1 = $value->param1;
$param2 = $value->param2;

 

Now I want to randomize the xml items (not in their original order); but I cannot use

shuffle($value);

because it does not consider $value as an array. How can I make a random order?

[PFMaBiSmAd]

I would use SimpleXMLElement::count to get a count of the number of child elements, then use rand() to get a random number from zero to the count -1, then use that random number to access the corresponding child element.

 

If you want to access more than one element randomly, you would make an array of the numbers, zero to count -1, shuffle that array, and then use that array of randomized numbers to access the corresponding child elements.

[etrader]

Sorry, I got a little bit confused. Could you please provide an example code doing this?

[salathe]

Get an array of the <case> elements by using XPath like

 

$cases = $xml->xpath('title/case');

 

or manually create an array of <case> elements

 

$cases = array();
foreach ($xml->title->case as $case) {
    $cases[] = $case;
}

 

then shuffle to your heart's content.