First you can have a look at the simplify, which is compatible with XML::Simple's XMLin, that might help.

Then if simplify is not what you are looking for, the "official" way to pass parameters to a handler is to use a closure. I am not sure why you deem this to be "not very elegant". It is a widely used technique, described for example in Achieving Closure (nearly 9 years ago!).

The code would look like this:

   my $data; # a ref to the data structure
   XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { foo => sub { foo( @_, $data); })
            ->parsefile( 'my.xml');

  sub foo
    { my( $twig, $foo, $data)= @_;
      # update the data referenced by $data
    }

[download]

It is even a FAQ: I want to pass additional arguments to XML::Twig handlers, not just the twig and the element, and I'd rather not use global variables. Can I do this?. I will add a paragraph about it in the main docs of the module though.

In reply to Re: Convert XML To Perl Data Structures Using XML::Twig by mirod
in thread Convert XML To Perl Data Structures Using XML::Twig by Limbic~Region

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