XML::Rules, its XML::Simple on steriods, if you need array-o-hash type structures

#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict; use warnings;
use XML::Rules;
use Data::Dump qw/ dd /;

my $ta = XML::Rules->new(
    qw/ stripspaces 8 /,
    rules => [
        _default => 'raw',
    ],
);

my $da = XML::Rules->new(
    qw/ stripspaces 8 /,
    rules => [
        a        => 'content',
        _default => 'raw',
    ],
);

dd $ta->parse(  q(<a><b type="1"/><b type="2"/><c/><b type="3"/></a>) 
+);
dd $da->parse(  q(<a><b type="1"/><b type="2"/><c/><b type="3"/></a>) 
+);
dd $da->parse(  q(<a><b type="1"/><b type="2"/><c/><b type="3">tada</b
+></a>) );
__END__
[
  "a",
  {
    _content => [
      ["b", { type => 1 }],
      ["b", { type => 2 }],
      ["c", {}],
      ["b", { type => 3 }],
    ],
  },
]
{
  a => [
         ["b", { type => 1 }],
         ["b", { type => 2 }],
         ["c", {}],
         ["b", { type => 3 }],
       ],
}
{
  a => [
         ["b", { type => 1 }],
         ["b", { type => 2 }],
         ["c", {}],
         ["b", { _content => "tada", type => 3 }],
       ],
}
[download]

And xsh is a step further

$ xsh -q
$scratch/> open pm981718.xml
/> ls /
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<a>
  <b type="1"/>
  <b type="2"/>
  <c/>
  <b type="3">tada</b>
</a>

/> for /a/* { pwd }
/a/b[1]
/a/b[2]
/a/c
/a/b[3]
/> for /a/* { pwd; print @type; }
/a/b[1]
1
/a/b[2]
2
/a/c

/a/b[3]
3
/> for /a/* { pwd; for(@*){ echo xsh:path(.) " = " xsh:current(); }; }
+;
/a/b[1]
/a/b[1]/@type  =  1
/a/b[2]
/a/b[2]/@type  =  2
/a/c
/a/b[3]
/a/b[3]/@type  =  3
/>
/> quit
saving .../.xsh2_history
done
[download]