Even if the input is "faulty" example code is still important. For all we know 
it's a complex problem you're triggering because of something subtle in your 
code.

I can't reproduce it with

<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<rss>
 <channel>
  <title>feed title</title>
  <description>feed description</description>
  <pubDate>Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:30:00 +0100</pubDate><item>
    <title>item title</title>
    <description>item description</description>
    <link>itemlink</link>
  </item>
 </channel>
</rss>
XML;

$reader = new XMLReader();
$reader->xml($xml);

// http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.xmlreader.php#88264
function xml2assoc($xml) { removed for brevity }

print_r(xml2assoc($reader));
?>

PHP 5.4.3 and libxml 2.7.7

Hi there,

This code is for testing purposes so i could learn how XMLReader() works before incorporating it in a RssWebfeed class i've written.
In this code the only thing i replace, to work around the bug i got, is the bit that is commented out in this example. 'nosnieuwsalgemeen.xml' is the file I have saved on my pc so i don't have to read it from internet everytime. It is the contents of http://feeds.nos.nl/nosnieuwsalgemeen. Another example is http://www.nasa.gov/rss/breaking_news.rss, but this one doesn't give the bug.
In the implementation, I need to get the data that comes before the first <item> into a feed database which identifies different feed id's and its title and description. When i encounter the first <item> these are records that go into a 2nd database which defines items for a particular feed.


Here's the code:


/*
$find = array (
	'<![CDATA[', ']]>', '><item>'
);
$repl = array (
	'',          '',    '>\r\n<item>'
);
*/

$file = 'nasa_breaking_news.xml';

$cont = file_get_contents($file);
//$cont = str_ireplace($find, $repl, $cont);

$nodes = array (
	'rss'            => array( 'version' => 'rss_version' ),
	'guid'           => true,
	'link'           => true,
	'title'          => true,
	'description'    => true,
	'pubDate'        => true,
	'lastBuildDate'  => true,
	'language'       => true,
	'image'          => true,
	'enclosure'      => array( 'url' => 'enclosure', 'type' => 'type', 'width' => 'imgwidth' ),
	'managingEditor' => true,
	'related'        => true,
);

$siblings = array (
	'image' => array( 'url' => 'image', 'title' => 'alt', 'link' => 'link', 'description' => 'title' ),
);

$xml = new XMLReader();

if ( $xml ) {
	echo '
	<div class="e large">xml = new XMLReader()</div>
	<div>gelukt</div>
	<br>';
}

if ( $xml->xml($cont, THIS_CHARSET, LIBXML_NOERROR|LIBXML_NOWARNING) === true ) {
	printf( '
	<div class="e large">xml->open()</div>
	<div>%s</div>
	<br>',
	$file
	);

	echo '
	<br>';

	$mode        = 0;
	$element     = '';
	$itemcount   = 0;

	while ( $xml->read() ) {

		if ( $xml->name == 'item' ) {
			switch ( $xml->nodeType ) {
			case XMLReader::ELEMENT:
				$itemcount++;
				$mode = 1;
				break;
			case XMLReader::END_ELEMENT:
				$mode = 0;
				break;
			}
		}

		$element = '';

		switch ( $xml->nodeType ) {
		case XMLReader::END_ELEMENT:
		case XMLReader::SIGNIFICANT_WHITESPACE:
		case XMLReader::WHITESPACE:
		case XMLReader::TEXT:
		case XMLReader::CDATA:
			continue 2;
		}

  		printf( '
		<br>
		<div style="padding-left:%uem;">
		<div class="e large">xml->read():</div>
		<div>xml->name: %s%s</div>
		<div>xml->nodeType: %d</div>
		<div>xml->isEmpty: %s</div>
		<div>xml->hasvalue: %s</div>
		<div>xml->attr: %s</div>
		<div>xml->depth: %d</div>',
		$mode+1,
		$xml->name,
		$xml->name=='item' ? sprintf(' (rec#: %u)', $itemcount) : '',
		$xml->nodeType,
		$xml->isEmptyElement ? "yes" : "no",
		$xml->hasValue ? "yes" : "no",
		$xml->hasAttributes ? $xml->attributeCount : "no",
		$xml->depth
		);

		if ( !$nodes[$xml->name] ) {
			echo '
			</div>';
			continue;
		}

		switch ( $xml->nodeType ) {
		case XMLReader::ELEMENT:
			$element = $xml->name;
			printf( '
			<div%s>',
			$nodes[$xml->name] ? ' class="grey"' : ''
			);
			if ( $nodes[$xml->name] === true ) {
				printf( '
				<div>INNER: %s</div>',
				$xml->readInnerXML()
				);
			}
			if ( $node = $xml->expand() ) {
				printf( '
				<div>node->name: %s</div>',
				$node->nodeName
				);
				printf( '
				<div>node->childs: %s</div>',
				$node->hasChildNodes() ? "".$node->childNodes->length : "no"
				);
				if ( $xml->hasAttributes && $node->attributes !== null ) {
					echo '
					<div>node->attr: ';
					for ( $i = 0; $i < $xml->attributeCount; $i++ ) {
						$item = $node->attributes->item($i);
						if ( $nodes[$xml->name][$item->nodeName] ) printf('[%s=%s]', $nodes[$xml->name][$item->nodeName], $item->nodeValue);
					}
					echo '
					</div>';
				}
				if ( $node->hasChildNodes() && $siblings[$node->nodeName] ) {
					echo '<div>node->items:';
					for ( $i = 0; $i < $node->childNodes->length - 1; $i++ ) {
						$item = $node->childNodes->item($i);
						if ( $item->nodeType == XMLReader::ELEMENT && $siblings[$node->nodeName][$item->nodeName]) {
							echo '['.$siblings[$node->nodeName][$item->nodeName].'='.$item->nodeValue.']';
						}
					}
					echo '</div>';
				}
				if ( $node->hasChildNodes() && ($mode == 1 || $siblings[$node->nodeName]) ) $xml->next();
			}
			echo '
			</div>';
			break;
		}
		echo '
		</div>';
	}

	$ret = $xml->close();

	printf( '
	<br>
	<div class="bordertop">
	<div class="e large">xml->close():</div>
	<div>%sgelukt</div>
	</div>',
	$ret===false ? 'niet ' : ''
	);

}

Hate to burst your bubble but there's a flaw in your code. The problem occurs 
when
* There is a node before an <item> with no whitespace (ie, a #text) in between
* Said node has children
* Said node has an entry in $siblings

The last two cause a line of code near the bottom

if ( $node->hasChildNodes() && ($mode == 1 || $siblings[$node->nodeName]) )
  $xml->next();

to fire. next() will skip over the rest of the node and, in lieu of a subsequent 
#text, advance to the <item>. But at the top of your loop you have a read(). 
That 
will skip over the tag and into the following #text (between the <item> and the 
<title>). You can confirm this by outputting the node name at the beginning of 
the 
loop - before the switch that would skip over it: <image>, then #text, then 
<title>.

It works for me if I change the while loop into a do/while:
* $xml->read() before the loop to initialize
* flag=false at the start of the loop
* the aforementioned line sets flag=$xml->next()
* do/while ( flag || $xml->read() )

If you'd like to know more you can email me at this address.

That does work indeed, thanks. I guess i misunderstood the explanation of next(). i didn't expect it to skip over the beginning <tag> of a new element. i thougt it would only skip over all subtrees of the current element, and that the read at the top of the loop would start at the <item> element.

Compliments on the 'super fast' reply also !

.