PHP - Loadxml/domxpath Problem

Hello All,

I have searched these forums and the net but haven't found an exact answer.  I have a "path" (could be paths) that is/are causing warnings as it/they is/are poorly formed.  This is bloating our logs, therefore I need to alleviate the issue.

There are thousands of paths in the database so I do not know which are causing issues.

I know I can add the "@" to the call to quiet the warning.  First question: does that keep the warning from going into the logs?

I would prefer not to use the method above as it bypasses the real issue. 

Looking at the SimpleXMLElement documentation along with DOMDocument and DOMXPAth, I can't find a way to validate the actual path.  All of the below throw a warning or notice:

$xpath->evaluate($path);
$xpath->query($path);
$node->xpath($path);

Final question: Is there a "simple" way to validate the $path prior to actually making the call to one of the methods of the various XML PHP classes?

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Guys thanks for helping me solve the problem i had but now i have another problem and i am lost. i have included the code below for you to have overview.

On the home page the url shows how it should be: http://localhost/board/italian.php?country=Italian
BUT 
When you mouse over the NEXT link to go to next page you get this : http://localhost/board/?page=1&country=Italian  and then an error 404 when you click on the link
page = 1  no matter if you are mousing over link for page 5 or 2

This is the code:

<table style="width:100%; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto">
        <?php    
            
            $items_per_page = 5;//how many records/rows to display per page
                        
            $page_url      = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
                                    
            $cleaned_current_page_country = htmlspecialchars($_GET["country"]);
                        
            $page_number = (isset($_GET['page']))? filter_var($_GET['page']) : 1;
            //$page_number = filter_var($_GET['page']);
            //$page_number = $_GET['page'];
                
            $selected_restaurant_type = $_GET['country'];
                                                            
            // find number of rows in the db
                $query = "SELECT * FROM menu_update WHERE special_of_theday = 1 AND restaurant_type = '".$selected_restaurant_type."' ";
                $query_result = mysqli_query($connection, $query); 
                $row_count = mysqli_fetch_array($query_result);
                $total_rows = mysqli_num_rows($query_result);
                                                
            $expected_number_of_pages = ceil($total_rows/$items_per_page); //expected number of pages 
                                                
            $page_position = (($page_number - 1) * $items_per_page); //get starting position to fetch record
                        
            //fetch a group of records using sql LIMIT clause
                $query = "SELECT * FROM menu_update WHERE special_of_theDay = 1 AND restaurant_type = '".$selected_restaurant_type."' LIMIT " .$page_position. ',' .$items_per_page;
                $query_result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
        ?>
                        
            <table width="100%" border=0>
                <tr bgcolor = "#cccccc">
                    <td>Meal</td>
                    <td>Meal name</td>
                    <td>Meal Price</td>
                    <td>Order Now</td>
                    <td>Full Menu</td>
                    <td>Our Gallery</td>
                    <td>Find Us</td>
                    <td>Our Chef</td>
                    <td>Our Manager</td>
                </tr>
        <?php
                while($row_count = mysqli_fetch_array($query_result)){
                    echo "<tr>";
                        echo"
                            <td style ='width:200px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'><a href='meal_fullPic.php'><img src= ".$row_count['img']." /></a></td>
                            <td style ='width:119px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'> ".$row_count['meal_name']."</td>
                            <td style ='width:100px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'>".$row_count['price']."</td>
                            <td style ='width:100px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'><a href='order_processor.php'><img src= ".$row_count['order_now']." /></a></td>
                            <td style ='width:100px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'><a href='full_menu.php'><img src= ".$row_count['full_menu_img']." /></a></td>
                                    
                            <td style ='width:170px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'><a href='restaurant_gallery.php'><img src= ".$row_count['restaurant_pic']." /></a></td>
                            <td style ='width:100px; text-align:center; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'><a href='restaurant_location.php'><img src= ".$row_count['location_pic']." /></a></td>
                            <td style ='width:119px; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'> ".$row_count['chef_name']."</td>
                            <td style ='width:119px; height:120px; background:#eaedf2'> ".$row_count['admin']."</td>
                        "; 
                    echo "</tr>";
                }
                mysqli_close($connection);
        ?>    
            </table>
        <div class="board_pagination">
        <?php
            //display the links to the pages
            for($current_page = 1; $current_page <= $expected_number_of_pages; $current_page++){
                 if ($page_number != $expected_number_of_pages){
                    $data = array(
                        'page' => $page_number,
                        'country' => $cleaned_current_page_country,
                    );
                    $the_query = http_build_query($data);
                    $page_url .= '?' . $the_query;
                    echo '<li><a href=" '.$the_query.' ">'.$current_page.'</a></li> ';
                }
            }
        ?>
        </div>
    </table>