use strict; use warnings; use XML::Twig; $|++; my $twig = XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { # as noted in the documentation for end_tag_handlers ... # "twig_handlers are called when an element is completely parsed" # so should be safe to purge here 'Book' => sub { my ($twig, $el) = @_; # print "purging ...\n"; $twig->purge; }, 'Book//*' => sub { # see http://search.cpan.org/~mirod/XML-Twig-3.49/Twig.pm#cond # for #ELT which is an element print $_->tag, ': ', $_->text, $/ unless ($_->has_children('#ELT')); } } ); $twig->parsefile('books.xml');