I guess the crux of the question still stands: Why an array? That is, as opposed to a single scalar string? or a data structure populated by an XML parsing module? Perl can access the content in these other forms too, and possibly to better effect -- unless you have some specific plan in mind that makes the array a better approach.

If you really are talking about a data file (i.e. on local disk), you can slurp the whole file into a scalar, or read it line-by-line into an array, or (best yet) parse it into a data structure. Maybe if you show a little bit of code that you're trying out, or at least some pseudo-code that describes what sort of processing you want to accomplish (what does input look like, what does output look like, etc), we'll understand what you're talking about.

In reply to Re^3: How do I capture XML into a variable? by graff
in thread How do I capture XML into a variable? by tubes41

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.