--TEST-- SimpleXML: CDATA --SKIPIF-- --FILE-- Plain text. EOF ); var_dump($sxe); $elem1 = $sxe->elem1; $elem2 = $elem1->elem2; var_dump(trim((string)$elem2)); ?> --EXPECTF-- object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (2) { ["@attributes"]=> array(1) { ["id"]=> string(5) "elem1" } ["elem1"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (3) { ["@attributes"]=> array(1) { ["attr1"]=> string(5) "first" } ["comment"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (0) { } ["elem2"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { ["elem3"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { ["elem4"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (1) { ["test"]=> object(SimpleXMLElement)#%d (0) { } } } } } } string(11) "CDATA block"