--TEST-- SimpleXML: modifying attributes of singular subnode --SKIPIF-- --FILE-- EOF; $people = simplexml_load_string($xml); var_dump($people->person['name']); $people->person['name'] = $people->person['name'] . 'Foo'; var_dump($people->person['name']); $people->person['name'] .= 'Bar'; var_dump($people->person['name']); echo "---[0]---\n"; $people = simplexml_load_string($xml); var_dump($people->person[0]['name']); $people->person[0]['name'] = $people->person[0]['name'] . 'Foo'; var_dump($people->person[0]['name']); $people->person[0]['name'] .= 'Bar'; var_dump($people->person[0]['name']); ?> ===DONE=== --EXPECTF-- object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(3) "Joe" } object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(6) "JoeFoo" } object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(9) "JoeFooBar" } ---[0]--- object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(3) "Joe" } object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(6) "JoeFoo" } object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { [0]=> string(9) "JoeFooBar" } ===DONE===