pass variable to xpath?

[Bishfish]

I am trying to find out if there is a way to pass a variable $fquote to
xpath ...[qtnum="help"]
$fquote would be derived from a form. Any help may save what is left of my
hair!!

<?php
$s = simplexml_load_file('fishquotes.xml');
$fquote = "245";
$findquote = $s->xpath('/fishingquotes/quote[qtnum="260"]');
....?>

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<fishingquotes xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<quote>
<qtnum>101</qtnum>
<title>Small Fish</title>
<copy>Govern a family as you would</copy>
<copy> cook a small fish; </copy>
<copy>very gently.</copy>
<author> Chinese Proverb</author>
<comment>None</comment>
</quote>
<!--and 450 more quotes-->
</fishingquotes>
--
Tony Bishop
www.bishfish.co.nz
New Zealand
--
Tony Bishop
www.bishfish.co.nz
New Zealand

[Daniel Tryba]

Bishfish <fi**********@hotmail.com> wrote:

I am trying to find out if there is a way to pass a variable $fquote to
xpath ...[qtnum="help"]
$fquote would be derived from a form. Any help may save what is left of my
hair!!

<?php
$s = simplexml_load_file('fishquotes.xml');
$fquote = "245";
$findquote = $s->xpath('/fishingquotes/quote[qtnum="260"]');
...?>

Looks like you are asking a very basic string question. Time to RTFM?
Hard to tell since you didn't ask a specific question. What is supposted
to happen with $fquote? Should it be used instead of the hardcoded 260
value?

Anyway:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php

See the difference between single quoted strings and double quoted:

<?php
$foo="bar";
echo "foo='$foo'\n";
echo 'foo="$foo"\n';
echo "foo=\"$foo\"\n";
echo 'foo="'.$foo.'"\n';
echo "etc.\n";
?>

So maybe you are looking for:
....xpath("/fishingquotes/quote[qtnum='$fquote']");

In that case $fquote has to be "XML escaped" (see htmlspecialchars()).

[Bishfish]

Thanks Daniel - you answered the question I did not ask - something about
wood and trees springs to mind :-)
--
Tony Bishop
www.bishfish.co.nz
New Zealand