my $test = sub { $_->delete()}; my $node_to_delete = 'node1-node2-node3-node4'; my @tags = split('-', $node_to_delete ); // my objective with a foreach will be to get a varaible // my $handlers = {$tags[0] => $test, $tags[1] => $test ) my $twig = new XML::Twig( twig_handlers => { $twig_handlers,}); $twig->parsefile(*DATA);