---
layout: default
title: Converting a CSV into a XML DOMDocument object
description: The XMLConverter class converts a CSV records collection into an XML document using PHP's DOM extension capabilities
---

# XML conversion

The `XMLConverter` converts a CSV records collection into a PHP `DOMDocument`.

<p class="message-info">Starting with version <code>9.22.0</code>, support for
returning <code>\Dom\XmlDocument</code> instances is added</p>

## Settings

Prior to converting your records collection into XML, you may wish to configure the element and its associated attribute names. To do so, `XMLConverter` provides methods to set up these settings.

<p class="message-warning">Because we are building a <code>DOMDocument</code> object, the <code>XMLConverter</code> object throws <code>DOMException</code> instead of <code>League\Csv\Exception</code>.</p>

### XMLConverter::rootElement

```php
public XMLConverter::rootElement(string $node_name): self
```

This method sets the XML root name.

<p class="message-info">The default root element name is <code>csv</code>.</p>

### XMLConverter::recordElement

```php
public XMLConverter::recordElement(string $node_name, string $record_offset_attribute_name = ''): self
```

This method sets the XML record name and optionally the attribute name for the record offset value if you want this information preserved.

<p class="message-info">The default record element name is <code>row</code>.</p>
<p class="message-info">The default attribute name is an empty string.</p>

### XMLConverter::fieldElement

```php
public XMLConverter::fieldElement(?string $node_name, string $fieldname_attribute_name = ''): self
```

This method sets the XML field name and optionally the attribute name for the field name value. If the field name
is `null` then the converter will use the CSV header names as field name.

<p class="message-info">The default field element name is <code>cell</code>.</p>
<p class="message-info">The default attribute name is an empty string.</p>
<p class="message-notice">The field element can be <code>null</code> since version <code>9.22.0</code>.</p>

If the field name is invalid an exception will be thrown. If you opt-in to use the record names as field element name,
the exception will only be thrown on XML conversion. If you want to check if the CSV current header are usable as
field name value you can use the new `XMLConverter::supportsHeader` method which returns `false` if at least on
of the header name is invalid.

```php
XMLConverter::supportsHeader(['foo', 'bar', '1']);   // returns false
XMLConverter::supportsHeader(['foo', 'bar', 'foo']); // returns true
```

### XMLConverter::formatter

<p class="message-info">New feature introduced in version <code>9.20.0</code></p>

```php
public XMLConverter::formatter(?callable $formatter): self
```

This method allow to apply a callback prior to converting your collection individual item.
This callback allows you to specify how each item will be converted. The formatter should
return an associative array suitable for conversion.

### XMLConverter::when

<p class="message-info">New feature introduced in version <code>9.22.0</code></p>

This method allows to conditionally create your converter depending on the success or
failure of a condition.

```php
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;

$converter = (new XMLConverter());
if ($condition) {
    $converter = $converter->fieldElement(null);
} else {
    $converter = $converter->fieldElement('cell');
}
```

becomes

```php
$stmt = (new XMLConverter())
    ->when(
        $condition,
        fn (XMLConverter $c) => $c->fieldElement(null),
        fn (XMLConverter $c) => $c->fieldElement('cell'),
    );
)
```

The `else` expression is not required but if present in **MUST BE** a callable which only
accepts the `XMLConverter` instance and returns `null` or a `XMLConverter` instance.

The only requirements are:

- that the condition is a `boolean` or a callable that returns a `boolean`.
- the callback returns a `XMLConverter` instance or null.

## Import

<p class="message-info">New feature introduced in version <code>9.3.0</code></p>

```php
public XMLConverter::import(iterable $records, DOMDocument|\Dom\XMLDocument $doc): DOMElement|\Dom\Element
```

Instead of converting your tabular data into a full XML document you can now import it into an already existing `DOMDocument` object.
To do so, you need to specify which document the data should be imported into using the `XMLConverter::import` method.

This method takes two arguments:

- the tabular data as defined for the `XMLConverter::convert` method;
- a `DOMDocument` or a `\Dom\XmlDocument` object to import the data into;

Note that the resulting `DOMElement` is attached to the given `DOMDocument` object but not yet included in the document tree.
To include it, you still need to call a DOM insertion method like `appendChild` or `insertBefore` with a node that *is* currently in the document tree.

```php
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;
use League\Csv\Statement;
use League\Csv\Reader;

$csv = Reader::from('/path/to/prenoms.csv', 'r');
$csv->setDelimiter(';');
$csv->setHeaderOffset(0);

$stmt = new Statement()
    ->where(function (array $record) {
        return 'Anaïs' === $record['prenoms'];
    })
    ->offset(0)
    ->limit(2)
;

$converter = new XMLConverter()
    ->rootElement('csv')
    ->recordElement('record', 'offset')
    ->fieldElement('field', 'name')
;

$records = $stmt->process($csv);

$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$dom->loadXML('<root><header><name>My CSV Document</name></header></root>');

$data = $converter->import($records, $dom);
$dom->appendChild($data);
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->encoding = 'iso-8859-15';

echo '<pre>', PHP_EOL;
echo htmlentities($dom->saveXML());
// <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-15"?>
// <root>
//   <header>
//     <name>My CSV Document</name>
//   </header>
//   <csv>
//     <record offset="71">
//       <field name="prenoms">Anaïs</field>
//       <field name="nombre">137</field>
//       <field name="sexe">F</field>
//       <field name="annee">2004</field>
//     </record>
//     <record offset="1099">
//       <field name="prenoms">Anaïs</field>
//       <field name="nombre">124</field>
//       <field name="sexe">F</field>
//       <field name="annee">2005</field>
//     </record>
//   </csv>
// </root>
```

The result is different if you set the field element as `null`:

```php
$converter = new XMLConverter()
    ->rootElement('csv')
    ->recordElement('record', 'offset')
    ->fieldElement(null)
;

$records = $stmt->process($csv);

$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
$dom->loadXML('<root><header><name>My CSV Document</name></header></root>');

$data = $converter->import($records, $dom);
$dom->appendChild($data);
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->encoding = 'iso-8859-15';

echo '<pre>', PHP_EOL;
echo htmlentities($dom->saveXML());
// <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-15"?>
// <root>
//   <header>
//     <name>My CSV Document</name>
//   </header>
//   <csv>
//     <record offset="71">
//       <prenoms>Anaïs</field>
//       <nombre>137</field>
//       <sexe>F</field>
//       <annee>2004</field>
//     </record>
//     <record offset="1099">
//       <prenoms>Anaïs</field>
//       <nombre>124</field>
//       <sexe>F</field>
//       <annee>2005</field>
//     </record>
//   </csv>
// </root>
```

## Conversion

<p class="message-notice">The method is deprecated in version <code>9.22.0</code> use <code>XMLConverter::import</code> instead</p>

```php
public XMLConverter::convert(iterable $records): DOMDocument
```

The `XMLConverter::convert` accepts an `iterable` which represents the records collection and returns a `DOMDocument` object.

```php
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;
use League\Csv\Statement;
use League\Csv\Reader;

$csv = Reader::from('/path/to/prenoms.csv', 'r');
$csv->setDelimiter(';');
$csv->setHeaderOffset(0);

$stmt = new Statement()
    ->where(function (array $record) {
        return 'Anaïs' === $record['prenoms'];
    })
    ->offset(0)
    ->limit(2)
;

$converter = new XMLConverter()
    ->rootElement('csv')
    ->recordElement('record', 'offset')
    ->fieldElement('field', 'name')
;

$records = $stmt->process($csv);

$dom = $converter->convert($records);
$dom->formatOutput = true;
$dom->encoding = 'iso-8859-15';

echo '<pre>', PHP_EOL;
echo htmlentities($dom->saveXML());
// <?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-15"?>
// <csv>
//   <record offset="71">
//     <field name="prenoms">Anaïs</field>
//     <field name="nombre">137</field>
//     <field name="sexe">F</field>
//     <field name="annee">2004</field>
//   </record>
//   <record offset="1099">
//     <field name="prenoms">Anaïs</field>
//     <field name="nombre">124</field>
//     <field name="sexe">F</field>
//     <field name="annee">2005</field>
//   </record>
// </csv>
```

<p class="message-info">If needed you can use the <a href="/9.0/converter/charset/">CharsetConverter</a> object to correctly encode your CSV records before conversion.</p>

## Download

<p class="message-warning">If you are using the package inside a framework please use the framework recommended way instead of the describe mechanism hereafter.</p>

To download the generated JSON you can use the `XMLConverter::download` method. The method returns
the total number of bytes sent just like the `XMLConverter::save` method and enable downloading the XML on the fly.

### General purpose

<p class="message-info">new in version <code>9.18.0</code></p>

```php
use League\Csv\Reader;
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;

$reader = Reader::from('file.csv');
$reader->setHeaderOffset(0);

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: no-cache');
header('Expires: 0');
header('Content-Type: text/xml; charset=UTF-8');
header('Content-Description: File Transfer');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="name-for-your-file.xml"');

new XMLConverter()->download($reader);
die;
```

In this scenario, you have to specify all the headers for the file to be downloaded.

### Using a filename

<p class="message-info">new in version <code>9.17.0</code></p>

To download the generated XML on the fly you can use the `XMLConverter::download` method:

```php
use League\Csv\Reader;
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;

$reader = Reader::from('file.csv');
$reader->setHeaderOffset(0);

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: no-cache');
header('Expires: 0');
 //the filename will be the name of the downloaded xml as shown by your HTTP client!
new XMLConverter()->download($reader, 'name-for-your-file.xml');
die;
```

<p class="message-notice">The caching headers are given as an example for using additional headers, it is up to the user to decide if those headers are needed or not.</p>

By default, the method will set the encoding to `utf-8` and will not format the XML. You can set those values using
the method optional arguments.

```php
use League\Csv\Reader;
use League\Csv\XMLConverter;

$reader = Reader::from('file.csv');
$reader->setHeaderOffset(0);

header('Cache-Control: no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate');
header('Pragma: no-cache');
header('Expires: 0');
new XMLConverter()->download(
    records: $reader,
    filename: 'generated_file.xml',
    encoding: 'iso-8859-1',
    formatOutput: true,
);
die;
```

<p class="message-warning">No check is done on the validity of the <code>encoding</code> string provided.</p>
