SimpleXMLElement->xpath Runs Xpath query on XML data arraySimpleXMLElement->xpath stringpath The xpath method searches the SimpleXML node for children matching the Xpath path. It always returns an array of SimpleXMLElement objects. text stuff code XML; $xml = simplexml_load_string($string); /* Search for */ $result = $xml->xpath('/a/b/c'); while(list( , $node) = each($result)) { echo '/a/b/c: ',$node,"\n"; } /* Relative paths also work... */ $result = $xml->xpath('b/c'); while(list( , $node) = each($result)) { echo 'b/c: ',$node,"\n"; } ?> ]]> This script will display: Notice that the two results are equal.