convert php simplexml xml node to consistent array or json for one or more children with values and attributes intact

simplexmlexport.php

/*
** http://stackoverflow.com/questions/23766159/php-simplexml-arrays-generated-differently-for-single-child-and-multiple-child
*/

$out = array();
foreach ($xmlobj->MainNode as $childnode) {
    foreach ($childnode as $n) {
        $e = new \SimpleXMLElement($n->asXML());
        $out[] = $e;
    }
}

var_export(json_encode($out,JSON_PRETTY_PRINT));
echo PHP_EOL;