Please don't use regexes to parse XML.

#!/usr/bin/env perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use XML::LibXML;

my $doc = XML::LibXML->load_xml( location => 'in.xml' );
my (@data, %maxlen);
for my $food ( $doc->findnodes('/breakfast_menu/food') ) {
    my %elem;
    for my $t ( qw/ name price / ) {
        # assume only one of these elements each per <food>
        my ($str) = $food->getElementsByTagName($t);
        $str = $str->textContent;
        $str =~ s/^\s*\$// if $t eq 'price';
        if ( !defined $maxlen{$t} || length $str > $maxlen{$t} )
            { $maxlen{$t} = length $str }
        $elem{$t} = $str;
    }
    push @data, \%elem;
}
@data = sort { $a->{name} cmp $b->{name} } @data;
for my $elem (@data) {
    printf "%-$maxlen{name}s %$maxlen{price}.2f\n",
              $elem->{name},  $elem->{price};
}

__END__

Belgian Waffles             5.95
Berry-Berry Belgian Waffles 8.95
French Toast                4.50
Homestyle Breakfast         6.95
Strawberry Belgian Waffles  7.95

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In reply to Re: aligning text by haukex
in thread aligning text by Anonymous Monk

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