<!-- GENERATED by docs/sphinx/bin/20-reference (p5) from reference/bundled/Pod/Simple/SimpleTree.md. Do not edit. -->

```{index} single: Pod::Simple::SimpleTree
```

# Pod::Simple::SimpleTree

parse Pod into a simple parse tree

## SYNOPSIS

```perl
% 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](../Simple.md) 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](../Simple.md)

[perllol](https://perldoc.perl.org/perllol)

[The "Tree" subsubsection in XML::Parser](../../XML/Parser.md)

## 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/](https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/). Feel free to fork and contribute, or
to clone [https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git](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`