<div>
<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-20-35772446-1">&lt;?php

$xml = '&lt;locations&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
 &lt;description&gt;Cork Heritage Park&lt;/description&gt;
	&lt;id&gt;ab-hy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Barryscourt Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;gr-tx&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
&lt;/locations&gt;';


preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;description&gt;(.+?)&lt;/description&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $ddesc);
preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;id&gt;(.+?)&lt;/id&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $did);
$fdesc = array();
$fid = array();
for($i = 0; $i &lt;= count($ddesc[0]); $i++) {
array_push($fdesc, $ddesc[0][$i]);
}
for($i = 0; $i &lt;= count($did[0]); $i++) {
array_push($fid, $did[0][$i]);
}
sort($fdesc);
sort($fid);

echo '&lt;select&gt;';
for($i = 1; $i &lt; count($fdesc); $i++) {
 echo '&lt;option value=&quot;'.$fid[$i].'&quot;&gt;'.$fdesc[$i].'&lt;/option&gt;';
}
echo '&lt;/select&gt;';
?&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>

<div>
Perfect. 
 
Just had to change $ddesc[0] &amp;&nbsp;$did[0] to $ddesc[1] &amp;&nbsp;$did[1] so the tags don't get included in the dropdown.
</div>

<div>
Actually V4nP3rs13 it doesn't work. 
 
It only appears to work if the list has &nbsp;2 &lt;location&gt; nodes. Any more than this and the description and id don't match. See code attached. 
 
Any ideas? 

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-8169580">&lt;?php

$xml = '&lt;locations&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
 &lt;description&gt;Cork Heritage Park&lt;/description&gt;
	&lt;id&gt;ab-hy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Barryscourt Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;gr-tx&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Bunratty Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;bc-xy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;

&lt;/locations&gt;';


preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;description&gt;(.+?)&lt;/description&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $ddesc);
preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;id&gt;(.+?)&lt;/id&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $did);
$fdesc = array();
$fid = array();
for($i = 0; $i &lt;= count($ddesc[0]); $i++) {
array_push($fdesc, $ddesc[0][$i]);
}
for($i = 0; $i &lt;= count($did[0]); $i++) {
array_push($fid, $did[0][$i]);
}
sort($fdesc);
sort($fid);

echo '&lt;select&gt;';
for($i = 1; $i &lt; count($fdesc); $i++) {
 echo '&lt;option value=&quot;'.$fid[$i].'&quot;&gt;'.$fdesc[$i].'&lt;/option&gt;';
}
echo '&lt;/select&gt;';
?&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>

<div>
oh I knew it must me a problem... i will recode this and post you another code
</div>

<div>
Don't worry V4nP3rs13 I managed to sort the problem by using simplexml and a multi dimensional array. 
 
Thank you anyway
</div>

<div>
Now it works: 

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-20-35777309-1">&lt;?php
$xml = '&lt;locations&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
 &lt;description&gt;Cork Heritage Park&lt;/description&gt;
	&lt;id&gt;ab-hy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Barryscourt Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;gr-tx&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Bunratty Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;bc-xy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;

&lt;/locations&gt;';


preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;description&gt;(.+?)&lt;/description&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $fdesc);
preg_match_all(&quot;#&lt;id&gt;(.+?)&lt;/id&gt;#&quot;, $xml, $fid);

$item = array();

for($i = 0; $i &lt;= count($fdesc[0]); $i++) {
 $item[$i] = $fdesc[0][$i].&quot;'||-item-||'&quot;.$fid[0][$i];
}
sort($item);

echo '&lt;select&gt;';
for($i = 1; $i &lt; count($item); $i++) {
 list($b[$i], $a[$i]) = explode(&quot;'||-item-||'&quot;, $item[$i]);
 echo '&lt;option value=&quot;'.str_ireplace(array(&quot;&lt;id&gt;&quot;, &quot;&lt;/id&gt;&quot;), null, $a[$i]).'&quot;&gt;'.$b[$i].'&lt;/option&gt;';
}
echo '&lt;/select&gt;';
?&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>

<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
I'm trying to sort an xml file (which I have no control over) alphabetically. Is there a way to do this using simplexml? 
 
Basically I'm trying to create a dropdown list using the xml returned, the dropdown needs to be sorted alphabetically by &lt;description&gt; 
 
From the xml attached this is what I would like to achieve 
 
&lt;select&gt; 
&lt;option value=&quot;gr-tx&quot;&gt;Barryscourt Castle&lt;/option&gt; 
&lt;option value=&quot;ab-hy&quot;&gt;Cork Heritage Park&lt;/option&gt; 
&lt;/select&gt; 

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-8169020">&lt;locations&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
 &lt;description&gt;Cork Heritage Park&lt;/description&gt;
	&lt;id&gt;ab-hy&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
 &lt;location&gt;
	&lt;description&gt;Barryscourt Castle&lt;/description&gt;
 &lt;id&gt;gr-tx&lt;/id&gt;
 &lt;/location&gt;
&lt;/locations&gt;
</code></pre>
</div>
</div>

I'm trying to sort an xml file (which I have no control over) alphabetically. Is there a way to do this using simplexml?

Basically I'm trying to create a dropdown list using the xml returned, the dropdown needs to be sorted alphabetically by <description>

From the xml attached this is what I would like to achieve

<select>
<option value="gr-tx">Barryscourt Castle</option>
<option value="ab-hy">Cork Heritage Park</option>
</select>

simplexml sorting data

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