use strict; use warnings; use 5.010; use XML::Simple; use Data::Dumper; my $str = q{ }; my $ref = XMLin($str); say Dumper($ref); say $ref->{name}; say $ref->{family}; say $ref->{subfamily}; --output:-- $VAR1 = { 'subfamily' => 'Database Connect - SQL', 'name' => 'DBMgrTest', 'family' => 'Databases' }; DBMgrTest Databases Database Connect - SQL