XML::Simple and <tag> </tag>

[Jenda]

Is there any way to force XML::Simple to keep the spaces?

use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $Parser = new XML::Simple(
    forcearray => [qw(LOCALE)],
    suppressempty => '',
);

my $data = $Parser->XMLin(<<'*END*');
<tag>
 <subtag> </subtag>
 <othertag>  ahoj  </othertag>
</tag>
*END*

print Dumper($data);

prints

$VAR1 = {
          'othertag' => '  ahoj  ',
          'subtag' => ''
        };

I need the $data->{subtag} eq ' ', not ''.

I tried to encode the space as &#32;, but that did not make any difference. I also tried all other values of the suppressempty option, but that did not help. P.S.: It's quite possible there will be several spaces in the tag, I need them all!

Update: I patched XML::Simple and added a new value for the suppressempty option that does what I need.

Update:Actually the patch is incomplete, I need to get empty strings, not undefs for the completely empty tags. So I've added another option. ' ' = keep the spaces, return '' for empty tags vs. '0' = keep the spaces, return undef for empty tags. I'll post the updated patch later. If anyone has a better idea what values to use, I'm all ears :-)