SimpleXML get node value

Question

Say I have this following XML structure:

    
        some value<         


        

Answer 1

A good example of using XPath with php for the SimpleXMLElement can be found here http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.simplexmlelement.php#95229

// Find the topmost element of the domDocument
$xpath = new DOMXPath($xml);
$child1 = $xpath->evaluate('/main/parent/child1')->item(0);