- var_dump: documentation ( source)
- simplexml_load_string: documentation ( source)
<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<a>
<b>Some String</b>
</a>
XML;
$b = simplexml_load_string($xml)->xpath('/a/b');
var_dump((string)$b[0]);
var_dump((bool)$b[0]);