use XML::Simple;
my $xml = <<'EOD' ;
<database name="somedb"> 
  <column name="column11" type="CHAR" />  
  <column name="column12" type="CHAR" /> 
  <column name="column21" type="CHAR" />  
  <column name="column22" type="CHAR" />
</database> 
EOD

my $data = XMLin( $xml, forcearray => 1 );

print $data->{name}, $/;
for my $col ( keys %{ $data->{column} } ) {
  print $col, $/;
}