When I run this code: foreach($xml->movie as $movie) { if(isset($movie->photos)) { foreach ($movie->photos as $photo) { echo $photo."&nbsp;"; } echo "<hr/>"; } } I get nice output of the actual data, e.g. a row looks like 06397001.jpg 06397002.jpg 06397003.jpg 06397004.jpg 06397005.jpg But when I throw it in an array, it includes all the SimpleXML wrapper tags and the jpgs are not at the root of the array. code: foreach($xml->movie as $movie) { if(isset($movie->photos)) { $photos = array(); foreach ($movie->photos as $photo) { $photos[] = $photo; } } else $photos = ""; var_dump($photos); echo "<hr />"; } e.g. same row looks like array(5) { [0]= object(SimpleXMLElement)#11 (1) { [0]= string(12) "06397001.jpg" } [1]= object(SimpleXMLElement)#12 (1) { [0]= string(12) "06397002.jpg" } [2]= object(SimpleXMLElement)#13 (1) { [0]= string(12) "06397003.jpg" } [3]= object(SimpleXMLElement)#14 (1) { [0]= string(12) "06397004.jpg" } [4]= object(SimpleXMLElement)#15 (1) { [0]= string(12) "06397005.jpg" } } Why is this happening/how can I remove this so I just get an array of the photos at root level like when I echo it? Thanks, sorry for the single line code formatting; was messing up when I tried to paste directly with line breaks.