PHP SimpleXML: insert node at certain position

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The following is a function to insert a new SimpleXMLElement after some other SimpleXMLElement. Since this isn’t directly possible with SimpleXML, it uses some DOM classes/methods behind-the-scenes to get the job done.

function simplexml_insert_after(SimpleXMLElement $insert, SimpleXMLElement $target)
{
    $target_dom = dom_import_simplexml($target);
    $insert_dom = $target_dom->ownerDocument->importNode(dom_import_simplexml($insert), true);
    if ($target_dom->nextSibling) {
        return $target_dom->parentNode->insertBefore($insert_dom, $target_dom->nextSibling);
    } else {
        return $target_dom->parentNode->appendChild($insert_dom);
    }
}

And an example of how it might be used (specific to your question):

$sxe = new SimpleXMLElement('<root><nodeA/><nodeA/><nodeA/><nodeC/><nodeC/><nodeC/></root>');
// New element to be inserted
$insert = new SimpleXMLElement("<nodeB/>");
// Get the last nodeA element
$target = current($sxe->xpath('//nodeA[last()]'));
// Insert the new element after the last nodeA
simplexml_insert_after($insert, $target);
// Peek at the new XML
echo $sxe->asXML();

If you want/need an explanation of how this works (the code is fairly simple but might include foreign concepts), just ask.

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