Can you please show me how to iterate through my staff members without getting the error seen below +. In my example, iterating multiple animals works fine, but iterating a single staff member errors. #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use Data::Dumper; use XML::Simple; &create_zoo; &display_zoo; sub create_zoo{ my %zoo=( animals=>{ 1=>{type=>'tiger', nickname=>'tom'} ,2=>{type=>'lion', nickname=>'leo'} } ,staff=>{ 1=>{role=>'manager', nickname=>'mike'} } ); print "------------------\n"; print "Data Dump\n"; print Dumper(\%zoo); print "------------------\n"; my $xml = new XML::Simple(); open (FILE, '>', "file.xml"); print FILE $xml->XMLout(\%zoo,noattr=>1,xmldecl=>'<?xml version="1.0"?>'); close FILE; print "------------------\n"; print "XML File\n"; print `cat file.xml`; print "------------------\n"; } sub display_zoo{ my $xml = new XML::Simple(); my $zoo=$xml->XMLin("file.xml"); print "------------------\n"; foreach my $animal (keys (%{$zoo->{'animals'}})){ print $zoo->{'animals'}->{$animal}->{'nickname'}; print " is a " . $zoo->{'animals'}->{$animal}->{'type'} . "\n"; } foreach my $staff (keys (%{$zoo->{'staff'}})){ print $zoo->{'staff'}->{$staff}->{'nickname'}; print " is a " . $zoo->{'staff'}->{$staff}->{'type'} . "\n"; } } sar:/# ./zoo.pl ------------------ Data Dump $VAR1 = { 'staff' => { '1' => { 'nickname' => 'mike', 'role' => 'manager' } }, 'animals' => { '1' => { 'nickname' => 'tom', 'type' => 'tiger' }, '2' => { 'nickname' => 'leo', 'type' => 'lion' } } }; ------------------ ------------------ XML File <?xml version="1.0"?> <opt> <animals> <name>1</name> <nickname>tom</nickname> <type>tiger</type> </animals> <animals> <name>2</name> <nickname>leo</nickname> <type>lion</type> </animals> <staff> <name>1</name> <nickname>mike</nickname> <role>manager</role> </staff> </opt> ------------------ ------------------ tom is a tiger leo is a lion Can't use string ("mike") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at ./zoo.pl line 45. sar:/#