note mirod <p>The problem is probably that XML::Parser is an <i>object factory</i>: it generates XML::Parser::Expat objects with each <tt>parse</tt> or <tt>parsefile</tt> call. The handlers then receive XML::Parser::Expat objects and not XML::Parser objects.</p> <p>There is a way to store data in the XML::Parser object and to access it in the handlers though: use the 'Non-Expat-Options' argument when creating the XML::Parser:</p> <code>#!/bin/perl -w use strict; use XML::Parser; my $p= new XML::Parser( 'Non-Expat-Options' => { my_option => "toto" }, Handlers => { Start => \&start, } ); $p->parse( '<a />'); sub start { my( $pe, $elt, %atts)= @_; print "my option: ", $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option}, "\n"; } </code> <p>This is certainly ugly but it works!</p> <p><b>Update:</b> note that the data is still stored in the XML::Parser object though, as shown by this code:</p> <code>#!/bin/perl -w use strict; use XML::Parser; my $p= new XML::Parser( 'Non-Expat-Options' => { my_option => "1" }, Handlers => { Start => \&start, } ); $p->parse( '<a />'); $p->parse( '<b />'); sub start { my( $pe, $elt, %atts)= @_; print "element: $elt - my option: ", $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option}++, "\n"; $p->parse( '<c />') unless( $pe->{'Non-Expat-Options'}->{my_option} > 3); }</code> <p>Which outputs:</p> <code>element: a - my option: 1 element: c - my option: 2 element: c - my option: 3 element: b - my option: 4 </code> 62782 62784