At a high level, XML::Simple contains two main functions.

• XMLin - store XML in a variable
• XMLout - write an XML file

In this example, <p>Hello World</p> is store in a variable named $xml.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::Simple;

my $xml= XMLin("<p>Hello World</p>");

More commonly, an XML file is used. Let's say you have an XML file named foo.xml that contains the following.

<acme>
  <name>Bugs Bunny</name>
</acme>

Here is how you would store the contents of foo.xml in a variable named $xml.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use XML::Simple;

my $xml= XMLin("foo.xml");

Data::Dumper can be used to print the $xml variable.

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper $xml;

Something like this should be returned.

$VAR1 = { 'acme' => 
                    {
                      'name' => 'Bugs Bunny'
                    }
         };