Ok, sorry all to beleaguer this; I'm getting close but not seeing the cigar.

Here's my code and what I'm getting. (I'll post as clear an explanation of what I'm trying to do afterwards - some folks have said I wasn't clear enough to begin with.)

if($xref->att('keyref')){
 my($h) = $linktext{$xref->att('keyref')}; # the keyref att is the key
+ previously defined for the %linktext hash
 my($count);
 foreach my $i (@$h){
  $count++;
  print "child $count:\n";
  $i->print;
  print $/;
  $xref->copy->paste(last_child=>$i); # this is where I must be doing 
+something wrong!
 } 
$xref->print;
}
[download]

The results:

 child 1:
<keyword conref="ds"/>
 child 2:
 Database-
 child 3:
<b>level</b>

 child 4:
 privileges

<xref keyref="ids_sqs_0147"></xref>
[download]

As you can see nothing is changing - the copy-paste doesn't seem to be working, the children are not getting inserted, though they're clearing displaying correctly with each $i->print statement. What am I doing wrong?

---

Only read the following if you want to get a clearer explanation of what I'm trying to do.

I have a number of "reference" files that each contain hundreds of citeReference elements. I am interested in two attributes - keys and href - and anything contained inside the child linktext element. For example:

<citeReference 
   keys="ids_sqs_0147"
   href="../com.ibm.sqls.doc/ids_sqs_0147.dita#ids_sqs_0147">
 <linktext>
  <keyword conref="ds"/>
   Database-<b>level</b> privileges
 </linktext>
</citeReference>
[download]

My script uses XML::Twig to read each citeReference element and store its children in a referenced hash called %linktext.

my @children = $citeReference->children;
$linktext{citeReference->att('keys')} = \@children;
[download]

Elsewhere I have hundreds of files with xref elements, with a keyref attribute that matches the keys attribute of the citeReference. For example:

<xref keyref="ids_sqs_0147">some existing text that should get replaced</xref>

What I want to do is replace keyref with the href from the citeReference element, and insert the linktext inside of the xref, including its text and child elements.

<xref href="../com.ibm.sqls.doc/ids_sqs_0147.dita#ids_sqs_0147">
  <keyword conref="ds"/>
   Database-<b>level</b> privileges
</xref>
[download]

My script matches the keyref attribute (e.g. "ids_sqs_0147") which corresponds to the keys attribute, and dereferences it to an array. This is where I'm not seeing what I want.

if($xref->att('keyref')){
 my($h) = $linktext{$xref->att('keyref')};
 my($count);
 foreach my $i (@$h){
  $count++;
  print "child $count:\n";
  $i->print;
  print $/;
  $xref->copy->paste(last_child=>$i);
 } 
$xref->print;
}
[download]

The results:

 child 1:
<keyword conref="ds"/>
 child 2:
 Database-
 child 3:
<b>level</b>

 child 4:
 privileges

<xref keyref="ids_sqs_0147">Database-level privileges</xref>
[download]

As you can see nothing is changing - the cut-paste doesn't seem to be working. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks - and sorry to be dense here.