SimpleXMLElement::attributes

It is really simple to access attributes using array form. However, you must convert them to strings or ints if you plan on passing the values to functions.
<?php
SimpleXMLElement Object
(
 [@attributes] => Array
 (
 [id] => 55555
 )
 [text] => "hello world"
)
?>

Then using a function
<?php
function xml_attribute($object, $attribute)
{
 if(isset($object[$attribute]))
 return (string) $object[$attribute];
}
?>

I can get the "id" like this
<?php
print xml_attribute($xml, 'id'); //prints "55555"
?>

Note that you must provide the namespace if you want to access an attribute of a non-default namespace:
Consider the following example:
<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet">
 <Table Foo="Bar" ss:ExpandedColumnCount="7">
 </Table>
</Workbook>
XML;
$sxml = new SimpleXMLElement($xml);
/**
 * Access attribute of default namespace
 */
var_dump((string) $sxml->Table[0]['Foo']);
// outputs: 'Bar'
/**
 * Access attribute of non-default namespace
 */
var_dump((int) $sxml->Table[0]['ExpandedColumnCount']);
// outputs: 0
var_dump((int) $sxml->Table[0]->attributes('ss', TRUE)->ExpandedColumnCount);
// outputs: '7'
?>

<?php
$att = 'attribueName';
// You can access an element's attribute just like this :
$attribute = $element->attributes()->$att;
// This will save the value of the attribute, and not the objet
$attribute = (string)$element->attributes()->$att;
// You also can edit it this way :
$element->attributes()->$att = 'New value of the attribute';
?>

Tip to get a real array of all attributes of a node (not SimpleXML's object acting like an array)
<?php
//- $node is a SimpleXMLElement object
$atts_object = $node->attributes(); //- get all attributes, this is not a real array
$atts_array = (array) $atts_object; //- typecast to an array
//- grab the value of '@attributes' key, which contains the array your after
$atts_array = $atts_array['@attributes'];
var_dump($atts_object); //- outputs object(SimpleXMLElement)[19]
 //- public '@attributes' => ...
var_dump($atts_array); //- outputs array (size=11) ...
?>
Hope this helps!

Easiest and safest way to get attributes as an array is to use the iterator_to_array function (see http://php.net/manual/en/function.iterator-to-array.php):
<?php
 $x = new SimpleXMLElement('<div class="myclass" id="myid"/>');
 $attributes = iterator_to_array($x->attributes());
?>

Use attributes to display when it meets certain condition defined attribute / value in xml tags.
Use atributos para exibir quando atende determinada condição definida atributo / valor em tags XML.
Consider the following example:
Considere o seguinte exemplo:
(file.xml)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<list>
 <item type="Language">
 <name>PHP</name>
 <link>www.php.net</link>
 </item>
 <item type="Database">
 <name>Java</name>
 <link>www.oracle.com/br/technologies/java/‎</link>
 </item>
</list>
Checks if the attribute value equals "Language", if equal prints everything that is related to "Language".
Verifica se o valor do atributo é igual a "Language", se for, imprime tudo o que for relativo ao mesmo.
<?php
$xml = simplexml_load_file("file.xml");
foreach($xml->children() as $child) {
 
 $role = $child->attributes();
 foreach($child as $key => $value) {
 
 if($role == "Language")
 echo("[".$key ."] ".$value . "<br />");
 
 }
}
?>

output:
saída:
[name] PHP
[link] www.php.net