Getting values from issues custom field

$file = file_get_contents($base_tracker_link.'/rest/issue/xxx', false, $context);

I have been pretty happy with this so far but this is pretty odd.  So for me to get a field I have to loop this whole array and look for the name of the field then get the info out of that field because of the number of items in the array changes depending on if anything is in the custom fields.

SimpleXMLElement Object
(
    [@attributes] => Array
        (
            [id] => xxxx
            [entityId] => 89-24870
        )

    [field] => Array
        (
            [0] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => projectShortName
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [1] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => numberInProject
                        )

                    [value] => 260
                )

            [2] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => summary
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [3] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => description
                        )

                    [value] => xxx

                )

            [4] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => created
                        )

                    [value] => 1518115614440
                )

            [5] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => updated
                        )

                    [value] => 1518641067795
                )

            [6] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => updaterName
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [7] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => updaterFullName
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [8] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => reporterName
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [9] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => reporterFullName
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [10] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => commentsCount
                        )

                    [value] => 10
                )

            [11] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => votes
                        )

                    [value] => 0
                )

            [12] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Assignee
                        )

                    [value] => xxx
                )

            [13] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Date of Service
                        )

                    [value] => 1518674400000
                    [valueId] => 1518674400000
                )

            [14] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => Time Of Service
                        )

                    [value] => 20:00
                    [valueId] => 20:00
                )

            [15] => SimpleXMLElement Object
                (
                    [@attributes] => Array
                        (
                            [name] => ONSITE
                        )

                    [value] => 12:00
                    [valueId] => 12:00
                )