How to Load XML Data into MySQL using PHP ?

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

In this article, we are going to store data present in XML file into MySQL database using PHP in XAMPP server.

XML: Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The design goals of XML focus on simplicity, generality, and usability across the Internet.

Example:

HTML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<datas>
    <data>
        <id>1</id>
        <name>sravan</name>
    </data>
    <data>
        <id>2</id>
        <name>Ojaswi</name>
    </data>
    <data>
        <id>3</id>
        <name>Rohith</name>
    </data>
</datas>

Loading XML file: We will use simplexml_load_file() function to convert the well-formed XML document into the given file to an object.

Syntax:

SimpleXMLElement simplexml_load_file( string $filename, 
        string $class_name = "SimpleXMLElement",
        int $options = 0, string $ns = "", 
        bool $is_prefix = FALSE )

Steps to Write and Execute code:

Start XAMPP

Identify number of attributes in xml file and create table in XAMPP. There are 4 attributes in XML file (input.xml is the file name). These are title, link. description, keywords. The database name is xmldata and table name is xml

Filename: input.xml

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<items>
    <item>
        <title>PHP DATABASE CONNECTION</title>
        <link>
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/php/php-database-connection/
        </link>
        <description>
            The collection of related data is called a 
            database. XAMPP stands for cross-platform, 
            Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl. It is among 
            the simple light-weight local servers for 
            website development.
        </description>
        <keywords>PHP, XAMPP</keywords>
    </item>

    <item>

        <title>Screen density and Terminologies</title>
        <link>
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/computer-graphics/screen-density-and-its-terminologies/
        </link>
        <description>
            Screen Density is a calculation of the 
            proportion of display character positions 
            on the screen or an area of the screen 
            containing something.
        </description>
        <keywords>software engineering</keywords>
    </item>

    <item>
        <title>DataProcessing vs DataCleaning</title>
        <link>
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/machine-learning/difference-between-data-cleaning-and-data-processing/
        </link>
        <description>
            Data Processing: It is defined as Collection, 
            manipulation, and processing of collected data 
            for the required use. It is a task of converting 
            data from a given form to a much more usable and 
            desired form i.e. making it more meaningful and 
            informative. Using Machine Learning algorithms, 
            mathematical modelling and statistical knowledge, 
            this entire process can be automated. This might 
            seem to be simple but when it comes to really big 
            organizations like Twitter, Facebook, 
            Administrative bodies like Parliament, UNESCO and
            health sector 
        </description>
        <keywords>Data Mining</keywords>
    </item>

    <item>
        <title>Predicting Air Quality Index</title>
        <link>
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python/predicting-air-quality-index-using-python/
        </link>
        <description>
            AQI: The air quality index is an index for 
            reporting air quality on a daily basis. In 
            other words, it is a measure of how air 
            pollution affects one’s health within a 
            short time period. The AQI is calculated
            based on the average concentration of a 
            particular pollutant measured over a 
            standard time interval. Generally, the 
            time interval is 24 hours for most pollutants, 
            8 hours for carbon monoxide and ozone.
        </description>
        <keywords>Machine Learning, Python</keywords>
    </item>
</items>

Filename: index.php

PHP

<?php

// Connect to database
// Server - localhost
// Username - root
// Password - empty
// Database name = xmldata
$conn = mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "", "xmldata");

$affectedRow = 0;

// Load xml file else check connection
$xml = simplexml_load_file("input.xml") 
    or die("Error: Cannot create object");

// Assign values
foreach ($xml->children() as $row) {
    $title = $row->title;
    $link = $row->link;
    $description = $row->description;
    $keywords = $row->keywords;
    
    // SQL query to insert data into xml table
    $sql = "INSERT INTO xml(title, link, 
        description, keywords) VALUES ('" 
        . $title . "','" . $link . "','" 
        . $description . "','" . $keywords . "')";
    
    $result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
    
    if (! empty($result)) {
        $affectedRow ++;
    } else {
        $error_message = mysqli_error($conn) . "\n";
    }
}
?>

<center><h2>GEEKS GOR GEEKS</h2></center>
<center><h1>XML Data storing in Database</h1></center>
<?php
if ($affectedRow > 0) {
    $message = $affectedRow . " records inserted";
} else {
    $message = "No records inserted";
}

?>
<style>
    body {  
        max-width:550px;
        font-family: Arial;
    }
    .affected-row {
        background: #cae4ca;
        padding: 10px;
        margin-bottom: 20px;
        border: #bdd6bd 1px solid;
        border-radius: 2px;
        color: #6e716e;
    }
    .error-message {
        background: #eac0c0;
        padding: 10px;
        margin-bottom: 20px;
        border: #dab2b2 1px solid;
        border-radius: 2px;
        color: #5d5b5b;
    }
</style>

<div class="affected-row">
    <?php  echo $message; ?>
</div>

<?php if (! empty($error_message)) { ?>

<div class="error-message">
    <?php echo nl2br($error_message); ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>