- simplexml_load_string: documentation ( source)
<?php
$menu = array();
$data = simplexml_load_string('<foo />');
$menu[] = $data;
$datas = simplexml_load_string('<foo><bar>1</bar><bar>2</bar></foo>');
$i=0; $menu = [];
foreach($datas as $data){
$menu[$i] = $data;
$i++;
}