That is because the checkbox values are either 1 or undef

I'm a little puzzled. Checkbutton values are supposed to be 1 or 0, defaulting to 0, though I can't argue with what I'm seeing. Try selecting, then deselecting a Checkbutton using mikasue's last example. When you press the Submit button for that row now, you shouldn't see the "Use of unitialized..." message, because now the value is 0 instead of undef. I'm going to have to take another look at why my second and third examples didn't behave this way.

Having said that, I agree that your first condition:  if ($foo) { ... } is best for this.