Hello, I have some XML:

...
  <inventors type="array">
    <inventor>
      <city>Aston Clinton</city>
      <name>Andy Barth</name>
      <number type="integer">1</number>
      <country>GB</country>
      <upper-name>ANDY BARTH</upper-name>
    </inventor>
    <inventor>
      <city>Aylesbury</city>
      <name>Daniele Dall'Acqua</name>
      <number type="integer">2</number>
      <country>GB</country>
      <upper-name>DANIELE DALL'ACQUA</upper-name>
    </inventor>
    <inventor>
      <city>Calne</city>
      <name>Nigel Drew</name>
      <number type="integer">3</number>
      <country>GB</country>
      <upper-name>NIGEL DREW</upper-name>
    </inventor>
  </inventors>
...
[download]

And I need to access the name of the inventor with Number=1. Using XML::Simple as follows

my $xml_to_hash = XMLin($xml_file,
  #ForceArray => 0,
  #KeyAttr    => {},
 );
[download]

I get this output:

$VAR1 = {
  'inventors' => {
     'inventor' => {
        'Nigel Drew' => {
            'country' => 'GB',
            'city' => 'Calne',
            'number' => {
            'content' => '3',
            'type' => 'integer'
          },
          'upper-name' => 'NIGEL DREW'
        },
        'Daniele Dall\'Acqua' => {
           'country' => 'GB',
           'city' => 'Aylesbury',
           'number' => {
              'content' => '2',
              'type' => 'integer'
             },
           'upper-name' => 'DANIELE DALL\'ACQUA'
        },
        'Andy Barth' => {
           'country' => 'GB',
           'city' => 'Aston Clinton',
           'number' => {
              'content' => '1',
              'type' => 'integer'
             },
           'upper-name' => 'ANDY BARTH'
        }
     },
    'type' => 'array'
  },
[download]

And with ForceArray enabled:

$VAR1 = {
  'inventors' => [
    {
      'inventor' => [
      {
        'country' => ['GB'],
        'city' => ['Aston Clinton'],
        'upper-name' => ['ANDY BARTH'],
        'number' => [{'content' => '1', 'type' => 'integer'}],
        'name' => ['Andy Barth']
      },
      {
        'country' => ['GB'],
        'city' => ['Aylesbury'],
        'upper-name' => ['DANIELE DALL\'ACQUA'],
        'number' => [{'content' => '2', 'type' => 'integer'}],
        'name' => ['Daniele Dall\'Acqua']
      },
      {
        'country' => ['GB'],
        'city' => ['Calne'],
        'upper-name' => ['NIGEL DREW'],
        'number' => [{'content' => '3', 'type' => 'integer'}],
        'name' => ['Nigel Drew']
      }
      ],
      'type' => 'array'
    }
   ], ...
[download]

In attempting to access Inventor #1 (with ForceArray disabled) I tried the following:

foreach my $inventors(%{$xml_to_hash->{inventors}}){
  if ($inventors->{inventor}->{number}->{content} == 1){
     print $inventors->{inventor};
     }
  }
[download]

to which I get error: "Can't use string ("inventor") as a HASH ref.." I also tried:

foreach my $inventor(%{$xml_to_hash->{inventors}->{inventor}}){
   if ($inventor->{number}->{content} == 1){
      print $inventor;
      }
   }
[download]

Which gives "Can't use string ("Nigel Drew") as a HASH ref.."

I'm not sure the output with ForceArray enabled is simplifying anything, and not sure how to begin accessing that structure.. Maybe I should be trying to use KeyAttr to organize the inventors under the <number> field, but my attempts have proved fruitless.. I've been using the manual and some info here: http://interoperating.info/courses/perl4data/node/26 .. Any help much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

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