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Bug #62717 BC: in PHP 5.4 empty() reports true for simplexmlelement
Submitted: 2012-08-01 14:37 UTC Modified: 2017-10-24 06:45 UTC
Votes:19
Avg. Score:4.5 ± 0.8
Reproduced:18 of 18 (100.0%)
Same Version:12 (66.7%)
Same OS:8 (44.4%)
From: php at sebastianmendel dot de Assigned: requinix (profile)
Status: Closed Package: SimpleXML related
PHP Version: 5.4.5 OS:
Private report: No CVE-ID: None
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 [2012-08-01 14:37 UTC] php at sebastianmendel dot de 
Description:
------------
When laoding XML into SimpleXMLElement and iterating with ->children() empty() reports true for SimpleXMLElement objects.

In PHP 5.3.16 empty() returns false.
In PHP 5.4.5 empty() returns true.

Test script:
---------------
$xml = <<<EOT
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<Y><X>6098881</X></Y>
EOT;

$sxml = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);

foreach ($sxml->children() as $xmlKey => $xmlNode) {
    var_dump(
        empty($xmlNode), (string) $xmlNode, $xmlNode->asxml()
    );
}

$xmlNode = new SimpleXMLElement('<X>501936634a721</X>');
var_dump(
    empty($xmlNode), (string) $xmlNode, $xmlNode->asxml()
);

Expected result:
----------------
bool(false)
string(7) "6098881"
string(14) "<X>6098881</X>"
bool(false)
string(13) "501936634a721"
string(43) "<?xml version="1.0"?>
<X>501936634a721</X>
"


Actual result:
--------------
bool(true)
string(7) "6098881"
string(14) "<X>6098881</X>"
bool(false)
string(13) "501936634a721"
string(43) "<?xml version="1.0"?>\n<X>501936634a721</X>\n"

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 [2012-12-12 11:47 UTC] jozef at react dot com 
This bug was introduced in 5.4.0, as can be seen on:

http://3v4l.org/MEL9Y


for the following test:

$string = <<<XML
<a>
	<b>success</b>
</a>
XML;

$xml = new SimpleXMLElement($string);
$result = $xml->xpath('/a/b');

foreach ($result as $r)
{
    if (!empty($r))
    {
    	print_r((string)$r);
    }
    else
    {
        echo 'failure';
    }
}
 [2012-12-12 14:18 UTC] laruence@php.net
-Assigned To: +Assigned To: and
 [2012-12-12 14:22 UTC] laruence@php.net 
hey, acurioso, do you have time to look at this?

I assume this is introduced in 
https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/1e3b32c7

thanks
 [2012-12-12 14:22 UTC] laruence@php.net
-Assigned To: and +Assigned To: acurioso
 [2013-05-31 10:22 UTC] ferca23 at gmail dot com 
I don't know if is exactly the same bug, but I have a similar problem.

The empty function is returning true when accessing the sub-elements using the main object, and is returning false when accessing the sub-elements using the variable containing the sub-element.

Example script:

$xmlstr = '<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<movies>
<movie>
    <title></title>
</movie>
</movies>';


$movies = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlstr);

$subelement = $movies->movie->title;

echo "Accesing normal: " . PHP_EOL;
echo var_dump($movies->movie->title) . PHP_EOL;
echo var_dump(empty($movies->movie->title)) . PHP_EOL;

echo "Accesing subelement: " . PHP_EOL;
echo var_dump($subelement) . PHP_EOL;
echo var_dump(empty($subelement)) . PHP_EOL;
 [2013-07-19 09:26 UTC] sviroos at gmail dot com 
I guess my problem is related to this bug:

TEST:
-----------------------
$xmlString = '<?xml version="1.0" ?><root><node>not empty</node><node></node><node attr="attr"></node></root>';
$xmlObject = new SimpleXMLElement($xmlString);
echo $xmlString;
echo $xmlObject->asXML();

Expected result:
-------------------
<root>
  <node>not empty</node>
  <node></node>
  <node attr="attr"></node>
</root>

Actual result:
-------------------
<root>
  <node>not empty</node>
  <node>
    <node attr="attr"></node>
  </node>
</root>
 [2017-10-24 05:59 UTC] kalle@php.net
-Status: Assigned +Status: Open -Assigned To: acurioso +Assigned To:
 [2017-10-24 06:45 UTC] requinix@php.net
-Status: Open +Status: Closed -Assigned To: +Assigned To: requinix
 [2017-10-24 06:45 UTC] requinix@php.net 
According to https://3v4l.org/NddfL this is fixed since 5.5.27/5.6.11.

Original code doesn't seem to reproduce. https://3v4l.org/2COOt
 
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