Read XML file into user Perl class using XML::Simple

Question

I have a Perl object containing one scalar and two arrays of hashes.

I am using XML::Simple to save an XML copy of this data structure, but when I try to read in the XML file using XMLin I am getting a different data structure.

Is there any way to specify the structure in XMLin to take the format of the object I used to create the original XML file?

Answer 1

It sounds like you're creating XML just for the purposes of storing the data in your object?

If so you should look at something like FreezeThaw or Storable instead, which is meant for this purpose and will recreate and bless the object properly.

Depending on the data, even JSON might help you, but XML::Simple isn't very good at doing what it's intended for never mind about serializing arbitrary data structures.