A simple example of how to read an XML document using Perl

This simple example shows how to read an XML document using Perl.

Suppose you have a file like this:

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="books.xsl" ?>
<books>
	<book>
		<title>Programming in XML</title>
		<author>Marc Vince</author>
		<pages>348</pages>
		<category>Programming</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>Programming in C#</title>
		<author>Loren Gallipyos</author>
		<pages>234</pages>
		<category>Programming</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>Android</title>
		<author>Norman Bert</author>
		<pages>419</pages>
		<category>Operating Systems</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>Linux</title>
		<author>Hurth Francy</author>
		<pages>294</pages>
		<category>Operating Systems</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>WordPress</title>
		<author>Milena Zarch</author>
		<pages>364</pages>
		<category>CMS</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>Joomla!</title>
		<author>Denise Patrics</author>
		<pages>163</pages>
		<category>CMS</category>
	</book>
	<book>
		<title>jQuery</title>
		<author>Teresa Curtis</author>
		<pages>349</pages>
		<category>Programming</category>
	</book>
</books>

Code:

use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

$xml = new XML::Simple;
my $books = $xml->XMLin("books.xml");

print Dumper( $books );

The output from the example:

domenico@linux-4nve:~/public_html/perl> perl xml.pl
$VAR1 = {
          'book' => [
                      {
                        'category' => 'Programming',
                        'author' => 'Marc Vince',
                        'title' => 'Programming in XML',
                        'pages' => '348'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'Programming',
                        'author' => 'Loren Gallipyos',
                        'title' => 'Programming in C#',
                        'pages' => '234'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'Operating Systems',
                        'author' => 'Norman Bert',
                        'title' => 'Android',
                        'pages' => '419'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'Operating Systems',
                        'author' => 'Hurth Francy',
                        'title' => 'Linux',
                        'pages' => '294'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'CMS',
                        'author' => 'Milena Zarch',
                        'title' => 'WordPress',
                        'pages' => '364'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'CMS',
                        'author' => 'Denise Patrics',
                        'title' => 'Joomla!',
                        'pages' => '163'
                      },
                      {
                        'category' => 'Programming',
                        'author' => 'Teresa Curtis',
                        'title' => 'jQuery',
                        'pages' => '349'
                      }
                    ]
        };