$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' use Data::Dumper; use XML::Simple qw{:strict}; my $xml = < 0 AMEX test 1 bla test1 2 alb test2 EOX my $config = XMLin($xml => KeyAttr => {item=>"filename"}, ForceArray => ["item"]); print Dumper $config; ' $VAR1 = { 'item' => { 'alb' => { 'id' => '2', 'destination_dir' => 'test2' }, 'AMEX' => { 'destination_dir' => 'test', 'id' => '0' }, 'bla' => { 'id' => '1', 'destination_dir' => 'test1' } } }; #### $ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' use XML::Simple qw{:strict}; my $xml = < 0 AMEX test 1 bla test1 2 alb test2 EOX my $config = XMLin($xml => KeyAttr => {item=>"filename"}, ForceArray => ["item"]); say "*** bla destination ***"; say $config->{item}{bla}{destination_dir}; say "*** all destinations ***"; for (keys %{$config->{item}}) { say "$_: ", $config->{item}{$_}{destination_dir}; } ' *** bla destination *** test1 *** all destinations *** alb: test2 AMEX: test bla: test1