Hi Shawn Thanks for answering my query. I have looked at the suggestions: $xml = simplexml_load_file('file.xml', 'SimpleXMLElement', LIBXML_NOCDATA); I am/was able to load the file OK and to access the data by iteration. However, I can't find a way to extract data by attributes. I need something like $string=<element idtype="11" lang="fr" label="Description - Etage">. Obviously, that won't work but that's the result I need. How do I get the data out of one of these elements by specifying its idtype and lang? I've google for hours on this and for another hour on SimpleXMLElement. Terry -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/simplexml---can-it-do-what-I-need--tp27481222p27486649.html Sent from the PHP - General mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php