How I can use ucfirst() on PHP SimpleXML node?

Question

I use php and simplexml for parse url. I want take value of simplexml node and change it, first I convert it to string, but ucfirst() doesn't work for that string.

$xml = simplexml_load_file($url); 

foreach($xml->offers->offer as $offer)
{
    $bodyType = (string) $offer->{"body-type"}; //I convert simplexml to string first  
    echo ucfirst($bodyType); // In this line ucfirst doesn't work
}

How to deal with it?

UPDATE: Problem was in Cyrillic letters, since ucfirst works only with Latin. Working solution is to use this function:

    $bodyType = (string) $offer->{"body-type"};
    $encoding='UTF-8';
    $str = mb_ereg_replace('^[\ ]+', '', $bodyType); 
    $str = mb_strtoupper(mb_substr($str, 0, 1, $encoding), $encoding). mb_substr($str, 1, mb_strlen($str), $encoding);

Answer 1

Dear plz share your xml file data also. I have used the following and it is working fine..

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<data>
    <offers>
        <offer>
            <body-type>offer 1</body-type>
        </offer>
        <offer>
            <body-type>offer 2</body-type>
        </offer>
    </offers>
</data>

my output is

Offer 1
Offer 2

HTML: Offer 1<br />Offer 2<br />

by following php code..

<?PHP
$url = "test.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url); 

foreach($xml->offers->offer as $offer)
{
    $bodyType = (string) $offer->{"body-type"}; //I convert simplexml to string first  
    echo ucfirst($bodyType); // In this line ucfirst doesn't work
    echo '<br />';
}


?>

Answer 2

Given the test.xml from Farrukh's answer , you can actually even omit the typecasting. This works as well for me:

<?php
$url = "test.xml";
$xml = simplexml_load_file($url); 

foreach($xml->offers->offer as $offer) {
    echo ucfirst($offer->{"body-type"}) .'<br>';
}

Here's a live demo: http://codepad.viper-7.com/L4VwPL

---

UPDATE (after URL was provided by OP)

You'll most likely have an encoding issue. When I set the UTF-8 charset explicitly, it works as expected (otherwise simplexml returns corrupted strings only).

 $url = "http://carsguru.net/x/used/exchange/4.xml"; $xml = simplexml_load_file($url); header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8'); foreach($xml->offers->offer as $offer) { echo ucfirst($offer->{"body-type"}) .'<br>'; } 

When I run the above snippet, I get this output (stripped):

 фургон универсал хэтчбек хэтчбек минивэн минивэн минивэн седан седан универсал хэтчбек универсал седан хэтчбек седан 

NOTE You don't serve a content-type/charset header for the xml! I'd add that.

---

Anyway, you may want to have a look at this: iconv -> iconv("cp1251", "UTF-8", $str);

---

Actually file encoding is Cyrillic windows-1251, which is probably make sence.

Why? You can, of course, use valid UTF-8! Here is an example node from your XML converted with this cp1251-to-utf8-function (might look odd, but renders perfectly!)

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <auto-catalog> <creation-date>2013-02-07 02:00:08 GMT+4</creation-date> <host>carsguru.net</host> <offers> <offer type="commercial"> <url>http://carsguru.net/used/5131406/view.html</url> <date>2013-02-07</date> <mark>&#1043;&#1040;&#1047;</mark> <model>2705</model> <year>2003</year> <seller-city>&#1057;&#1072;&#1085;&#1082;&#1090;-&#1055;&#1077;&#1090;&#1077;&#1088;&#1073;&#1091;&#1088;&#1075;</seller-city> <seller-phone>8-921-997-74-06</seller-phone> <price>150000</price> <currency-type>RUR</currency-type> <steering-wheel>&#1083;&#1077;&#1074;&#1099;&#1081;</steering-wheel> <run-metric>&#1082;&#1084;</run-metric> <run>194</run> <displacement>2300</displacement> <stock>&#1074; &#1085;&#1072;&#1083;&#1080;&#1095;&#1080;&#1080;</stock> <state>&#1061;&#1086;&#1088;&#1086;&#1096;&#1077;&#1077;</state> <color>&#1089;&#1080;&#1085;&#1080;&#1081;</color> <body-type>&#1092;&#1091;&#1088;&#1075;&#1086;&#1085;</body-type> <engine-type>&#1073;&#1077;&#1085;&#1079;&#1080;&#1085;</engine-type> <gear-type>&#1079;&#1072;&#1076;&#1085;&#1080;&#1081;</gear-type> <transmission>&#1088;&#1091;&#1095;&#1085;&#1072;&#1103;</transmission> <horse-power>98</horse-power> <image>http://carsguru.net/clf/03/af/9c/8b/used.4r9v39h31facog8cs0w0wk8ws.jpg.medium.jpg</image> <image>http://carsguru.net/clf/ae/51/be/3a/used.bxyc3q9mx80sko0wg80880w0k.jpg.medium.jpg</image> <image>http://carsguru.net/clf/28/dc/c1/d4/used.8i1b76l1b8o4cwg8gc08oos4s.jpg.medium.jpg</image> <image>http://carsguru.net/clf/55/3d/37/10/used.7dmn7puczuo0wo4cs8kko0cco.jpg.medium.jpg</image> <image>http://carsguru.net/clf/49/02/15/54/used.7k8lhomw4j4s4040kssk4kgso.jpg.medium.jpg</image> <equipment>&#1052;&#1072;&#1075;&#1085;&#1080;&#1090;&#1086;&#1083;&#1072;</equipment> <equipment>&#1055;&#1086;&#1076;&#1086;&#1075;&#1088;&#1077;&#1074; &#1079;&#1077;&#1088;&#1082;&#1072;&#1083;</equipment> </offer> </offers> </auto-catalog>