XML::Pa...e::ETree(3)

🦋 XML::Parser::Style::ETree — the Perl doc page, but make it make sense 🦋

okay so bestie, this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation set — it's XML::Parser::Style::ETree, and it's basically the moment XML turns into a cute little Perl hash for you. no cap, it's giving "tree but make it data structure" 💅

---

✨ NAME ✨

XML::Parser::Style::ETree — parse xml to simple tree. that's it, that's the whole vibe 🎀

---

🌸 VERSION 🌸

Version 0.09 — yes queen, we're on 0.09 💖

---

🧚 SYNOPSIS 🧚

the whole setup is literally two lines:

use XML::Parser;
my $p = XML::Parser->new( Style => 'ETree' );

that's the entire ritual. slay ✨

---

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

okay so imagine this lil XML:

<root at="key">
        <nest>
                first
                <v>a</v>
                mid
                <v at="a">b</v>
                <vv></vv>
                last
        </nest>
</root>

it will be — and honestly this is iconic —

{
        root => {
                '-at' => 'key',
                nest => {
                        '#text' => 'firstmidlast',
                        vv => '',
                        v => [
                                'a',
                                {
                                        '-at' => 'a',
                                        '#text' => 'b'
                                }
                        ]
                }
        }
}

see how the text got all smooshed together into '#text' => 'firstmidlast'? that's not a bug bestie, that's the whole point 🫶

---

👑 SPECIAL VARIABLES 👑

these are the knobs you can turn. global package variables, main character energy, handle with care 💜

💅 $TEXT{ATTR} [ = '-' ]

lets you set the prefix for the name of attribute nodes, periodt.

<item attr="value" />
# will be
item => { -attr => 'value' };

# with
$TEXT{ATTR} = '+';
# will be
item => { '+attr' => 'value' };

lowkey obsessed with how easy that is ✨

🎀 $TEXT{NODE} [ = '#text' ]

lets you set the name for text nodes, bestie.

<item><sub attr="t"></sub>Text value</item>
# will be
item => { sub => { -attr => "t" }, #text => 'Text value' };

# with
$TEXT{NODE} = '';
# will be
item => { sub => { -attr => "t" }, '' => 'Text value' };

set it to the empty string and your text node key is just… nothing. iykyk 🙈

⭐ $TEXT{JOIN} [ = '' ]

lets you set the join separator for a text node that got split up by subnodes. (yes, "splitted" — the original said splitted, and we respect the original 💀)

<item>Test1<sub />Test2</item>
# will be
item => { sub => '', #text => 'Test1Test2' };

# with
$TEXT{JOIN} = '+';
# will be
item => { sub => '', #text => 'Test1+Test2' };

🌈 $TEXT{TRIM} [ = 1 ]

trims leading and trailing whitespace from text nodes. it's on by default, and honestly it's doing the lord's work 💖

<item>  Test1  <sub />  Test2  </item>
# will be
item => { sub => '', #text => 'Test1Test2' };

# with
$TEXT{TRIM} = 0;
# will be
item => { sub => '', #text => '  Test1    Test2  ' };

🔥 %FORCE_ARRAY

lets you force nodes to always be represented as arrays. if the name is the empty string, that means ALL. (the original typo'd it as "ot" — we love a lil chaos 🫶)

<item><sub attr="t"></sub>Text value</item>

# will be
item => { sub => { -attr => "t" }, #text => 'Text value' };

# with
$FORCE_ARRAY{sub} = 1;
# will be
item => { sub => [ { -attr => "t" } ], #text => 'Text value' };

# with
$FORCE_ARRAY{''} = 1;
# will be
item => [ { sub => [ { -attr => "t" } ], #text => 'Text value' } ];

not me looking at that last one like 👁️👄👁️ — yeah it wraps the whole item in an array. that's ALL doing its thing.

💀 %FORCE_HASH

lets you force text-only nodes to always be represented as hashes. if the name is the empty string, again, that means ALL.

<item><sub>Text value</sub><any>Text value</any></item>

# will be
item => { sub => 'Text value', any => 'Text value' };

# with
$FORCE_HASH{sub} = 1;
# will be
item => { sub => { #text => 'Text value' }, any => 'Text value' };

# with
$FORCE_HASH{''} = 1;
# will be
item => { sub => { #text => 'Text value' }, any => { #text => 'Text value' } };

consistent output shapes are highkey underrated, fr fr 💜

🌟 @STRIP_KEY

lets you strip stuff from tag names using regular expressions. yes, regex. buckle up ✨

<a:item><b:sub>Text value</b:sub></a:item>

# will be
'a:item' => { 'b:sub' => 'Text value' };

# with
@STRIP_KEY = (qr/^[^:]+:/);
# will be
'item' => { 'sub' => 'Text value' };

goodbye namespaces, hello clean keys 🎀 (it's an array, so you can stack multiple patterns — the original just shows one, and we're not gonna invent more 👑)

---

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

the friends of this module, in order, with all the commentary 💖

• XML::Parser — the parser itself. the parent. the main character.
• XML::Parser::EasyTree — another EasyTree. the author says (and i quote in spirit) they didn't find it before their first commit of this package, because of the missing '::Style' in its name 😭 so, since XML::Parser::EasyTree and XML::Parser::Style::EasyTree use the same style name, they're mutually exclusive ;( — you can't have both, bestie, pick a lane. so all the functionality was moved to ETree, and EasyTree was kept as a compatibility wrapper. retirement arc complete 🫶
• XML::Bare — very-very fast XML parser. recommend to look. (the author's words, and honestly, valid recommendation 👀)
• XML::Hash::LX — similar behaviour, same output, but using XML::LibXML. same vibe, different engine 🔥

---

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Mons Anderson, <mons at cpan.org> — king behavior, we stan 👑

---

🦋 BUGS 🦋

None known. (we love a flawless run, no cap ✨)

---

💖 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE 💖

Copyright 2009 Mons Anderson

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

---

and that's the tea bestie 🍓 this page came to you courtesy of perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15, in the XML::Pa...e::ETree(3) section of the docs — go forth and parse, you gorgeous genius 💅✨