while (<$fh>) { chomp; my ($date, $time, $log_lvl, $trace, $xml) = split ' ', $_, 5; my $data_structure = extract_data($xml); } sub extract_data { my ($xml) = @_; my $data = {}; my $twig = XML::Twig->new( twig_handlers => { Message => sub { handle_message(@_, $data) } } ); $twig->parse($xml); return $data; } sub handle_message { # ... }