- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
$xml = '<ArrayOfItemSpecs xmlns="http://schemas.datacontract.org/2004/07/P.Common.ItemSpecs" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><ItemSpecs><ItemCode>4003255</ItemCode><ItemSpec xmlns:a="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays"><a:string>17</a:string><a:string>YES</a:string><a:string/><a:string>1</a:string><a:string/><a:string/><a:string/><a:string/><a:string/><a:string/><a:string/><a:string>40025</a:string><a:string></a:string><a:string></a:string><a:string/><a:string>970</a:string><a:string>3000810</a:string><a:string>4003392</a:string><a:string>4003623</a:string><a:string>4003282</a:string></ItemSpec></ItemSpecs></ArrayOfItemSpecs>';
$doc = new DOMDocument();
$doc->loadXML($xml);
$xpath = new DOMXPath($doc);
$xpath->registerNamespace("a", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays");
foreach($xpath->query("//a:string") as $node) {
var_dump($node->nodeValue);
}