How to load XML when PHP can't indicate the right encoding?

Question

I\'m trying to load an XML source from a remote location, so i have no control of the formatting. Unfortunately the XML file I\'m trying to load has no encoding:

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Answer 1

You've to convert your document into UTF-8, the easiest would be to use utf8_encode().

DOMdocument example:

$doc = new DOMDocument();
$content = utf8_encode(file_get_contents($url));
$doc->loadXML($content);

SimpleXML example:

$xmlInput = simplexml_load_string(utf8_encode(file_get_contents($url_or_file)));

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If you don't know the current encoding, use mb_detect_encoding(), for example:

$content = utf8_encode(file_get_contents($url_or_file));
$encoding = mb_detect_encoding($content);
$doc = new DOMdocument();
$res = $doc->loadXML("" . $content);

Notes:

• If encoding cannot be detected (function will return FALSE), you may try to force the encoding via utf8_encode().
• If you're loading html code via $doc->loadHTML instead, you can still use XML header.

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If you know the encoding, use iconv() to convert it:

$xml = iconv('ISO-8859-1' ,'UTF-8', $xmlInput)