my $xml_src = ' 1Hello worldGoodbye world 2abcdef ' ; my $xml_in = XMLin($xml_src, ForceArray => 1); my $xml_out = XMLout(Test(), rootname=>'foo'); print "Source:\n" . $xml_src . "\n\n"; print "Output:\n" . $xml_out . "\n"; sub Test{ my $entry; my $out; foreach $entry(@{${$xml_in}{'bar'}}){ push @{${$out}{'bar'}}, {%$entry} } return $out; } __output__ Source: 1Hello worldGoodbye world 2abcdef Output: 1 Goodbye world Hello world 2 def abc