---
name: "Pod::Simple::SimpleTree"
section: "3p"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Pod::Simple::SimpleTree"
---

# Pod::Simple::SimpleTree(3p)

## NAME

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

## 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

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

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

## 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

Pod::Simple

perllol

The "Tree" subsubsection in XML::Parser

## 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, \<https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/\>. Feel free to fork and contribute, or to clone \<https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git\> and send patches!

Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to \<bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org\>.

## 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

Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke \<sburke@cpan.org\>. 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"`