#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $xml = do{ local $/; <DATA> };

print Dumper XMLin($xml);

__DATA__
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
    <test id="1">
        <first id="white">Mike</first>
    </test>
    <test id="1">
        <last id="black">Gifford</last>
    </test>
</root>

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = {
          'test' => {
                    '1' => {
                           'last' => {
                                     'content' => 'Gifford',
                                     'id' => 'black'
                                   }
                         }
                  }
        };