What are some best practices for debugging PHP code that involves parsing XML files?

When debugging PHP code that involves parsing XML files, it is important to check for any syntax errors in the XML file itself, ensure proper error handling is in place, and use PHP functions like simplexml_load_file() to parse the XML data. Additionally, using var_dump() or print_r() to inspect the XML data structure can help identify any issues.

$xmlFile = 'data.xml';

if (file_exists($xmlFile)) {
    $xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlFile);
    
    if ($xml === false) {
        die('Error parsing XML file.');
    }

    // Use var_dump() or print_r() to inspect the XML data structure
    var_dump($xml);
} else {
    die('XML file not found.');
}