Dude ... it's right there in the first couple of lines of XML::XPath:

    my $nodeset = $row->find('AD');

    foreach my $node ( $nodeset->get_nodelist ) {
      my $xref = $node->find( '@XREF' )->string_value;
      my $fname = $node->find( 'FName')->string_value;
      my $lname = $node->find('LName')->string_value;
      my $bdate = $node->find('BDate')->string_value;
      my $no = $node->find('No')->string_value;
      my $state = $node->find('State')->string_value;
      my $ssss = $node->find('SSSS')->string_value;
      my $train = $node->find('Train')->string_value;
      my $volume = $node->find('Volume')->string_value;
      my $cno = $node->find('CNo')->string_value;
      my $id = $node->find('ID')->string_value;


      print "1-$trans - 2-$cert - 3-$xref - 4-$fname - 5-$lname - 6-$b
+date -
             7-$no - 8-$state - 9-$ssss - 10-$train - 11-$volume - 12-
+$cno -
             13-$id\n";
  }
[download]

but then again ... I prefer to use XSLT for stuff like this ... I love the pain

I dont know how you can get this code to work with the code above.

what's not working?

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use XML::XPath;
use XML::XPath::XMLParser;

my $xp = XML::XPath->new(filename => 'test_x.xml');

foreach my $row ($xp->findnodes('/HOME/Trans')) {

    # extract from the XML
    my $trans = $row->find('//@ID')->string_value;
    my $cert  = $row->find('Cert')->string_value;

    my $nodeset = $row->find('AD');

    foreach my $node ( $nodeset->get_nodelist ) {
      my $xref = $node->find( '@XREF' )->string_value;
      my $fname = $node->find( 'FName')->string_value;
      my $lname = $node->find('LName')->string_value;
      my $bdate = $node->find('BDate')->string_value;
      my $no = $node->find('No')->string_value;
      my $state = $node->find('State')->string_value;
      my $ssss = $node->find('SSSS')->string_value;
      my $train = $node->find('Train')->string_value;
      my $volume = $node->find('Volume')->string_value;
      my $cno = $node->find('CNo')->string_value;
      my $id = $node->find('ID')->string_value;

      print "1-$trans - 2-$cert - 3-$xref - 4-$fname - 5-$lname - 
             6-$bdate - 7-$no - 8-$state - 9-$ssss - 10-$train - 
             11-$volume - 12-$cno - 13-$id\n";
  }

}

> perl ./xp.pl test_x.xml
1-0164754 - 2-8280164754 - 3-DELTA1 - 4-Joe - 5-Frost - 
       6-19650420 -7-X0000000 - 8-RI - 9-07 - 10-N - 
       11-N - 12- - 13-
1-0164754 - 2-8280164754 - 3-DELTA2 - 4-MARY  - 5-FROST - 
       6-19861107 - 7-Y0000000 - 8-NY - 9-00 - 10-Y - 
       11-N - 12-153 - 13-WC204338
[download]

-derby