php SimpleXML check if a child exists

Question

A->b->c might exist but c might not exist. How do I check it?

Answer 1

I use a helper function to check if a node is a valid node provided as a parameter in function.

private static function isValidNode($node) {
  return isset($node) && $node instanceof SimpleXMLElement && !empty($node);
}

Usage example:

public function getIdFromNode($node) {
  if (!self::isValidNode($node)) {
    return 0;
  }
  return (int)$node['id'];
}