- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
$xml = <<<XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
<foo />
<bar>
<qux />
</bar>
</root>
XML;
$dom = new DOMDocument();
$dom->loadXML($xml);
$query = '/root';
$xpath = new DOMXpath($dom);
var_dump($xpath->evaluate($query));