#!/usr/bin/perl -- 

use strict;
use warnings;


use XML::Simple;

my $xml =<<'__XML__';
<row>
<field name='column1'>Homer</field>
<field name='column2'>Homer Simpson</field>
<field name='column3'>Nuclear Systems Operation</field>
</row>
__XML__

$xml =~ s/^\s+//s;
$xml =~ s/\s+\z//s;

my $row = XMLin($xml,ForceContent=>1, ForceArray=>1);

print Data::Dumper->new([$row])->Indent(1)->Dump;use Data::Dumper;


for my $key( keys %{$row->{field}} ){
    print "$key => ", $row->{field}{$key}{content},"\n";
}


__END__

$VAR1 = {
  'field' => {
    'column3' => {
      'content' => 'Nuclear Systems Operation'
    },
    'column2' => {
      'content' => 'Homer Simpson'
    },
    'column1' => {
      'content' => 'Homer'
    }
  }
};
column3 => Nuclear Systems Operation
column2 => Homer Simpson
column1 => Homer