Pod::Simple::SimpleTree(3pm) Perl Programmers Reference Guide Pod::Simple::SimpleTree(3pm)

# [NAME](#NAME)

Pod::Simple::SimpleTree -- parse Pod into a simple parse tree

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
  % cat ptest.pod
  =head1 PIE
  I like B<pie>!
  % perl -MPod::Simple::SimpleTree -MData::Dumper -e \
     "print Dumper(Pod::Simple::SimpleTree->new->parse_file(shift)->root)" \
     ptest.pod
  $VAR1 = [
            'Document',
            { 'start_line' => 1 },
            [
              'head1',
              { 'start_line' => 1 },
              'PIE'
            ],
            [
              'Para',
              { 'start_line' => 3 },
              'I like ',
              [
                'B',
                {},
                'pie'
              ],
              '!'
            ]
          ];
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

This class is of interest to people writing a Pod processor/formatter.

This class takes Pod and parses it, returning a parse tree made just of arrayrefs, and hashrefs, and strings.

This is a subclass of Pod::Simple and inherits all its methods.

This class is inspired by XML::Parser's "Tree" parsing-style, although it doesn't use exactly the same LoL format.

# [METHODS](#METHODS)

At the end of the parse, call "$parser-&gt;root" to get the tree's top node.

# [Tree Contents](#Tree_Contents)

Every element node in the parse tree is represented by an arrayref of the form: "\[ *elementname*, \\%attributes, *...subnodes...* ]". See the example tree dump in the Synopsis, above.

Every text node in the tree is represented by a simple (non-ref) string scalar. So you can test ref($node) to see whether you have an element node or just a text node.

The top node in the tree is "\[ 'Document', \\%attributes, *...subnodes...* ]"

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

Pod::Simple

perllol

The "Tree" subsubsection in XML::Parser

# [SUPPORT](#SUPPORT)

Questions or discussion about POD and Pod::Simple should be sent to the pod-people@perl.org mail list. Send an empty email to pod-people-subscribe@perl.org to subscribe.

This module is managed in an open GitHub repository, &lt;https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/&gt;. Feel free to fork and contribute, or to clone &lt;https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git&gt; and send patches!

Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to &lt;bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org&gt;.

# [COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS](#COPYRIGHT_AND_DISCLAIMERS)

Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

# [AUTHOR](#AUTHOR)

Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke &lt;sburke@cpan.org&gt;. But don't bother him, he's retired.

Pod::Simple is maintained by:

- Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
- Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
- David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"

2026-10-21 perl v5.44.0

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Document: Pod::Simple::SimpleTree(3pm) from perl 5.44.0-r2 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/Perl/perl5.git