I prefer to implement kcott's idea this way. "Short circuit" operation of the and operator C style Logical And prevents unnecessary testing which would cause autovivification. 
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use Test::More tests=>2;
my $h = { b => {} };
my $f = $h->{b}{c}{d} if exists($h->{b}{c}) and exists($h->{b}{c}{d});

is_deeply( $h, { b => {} }, 'no autovivification' );

is( $f, undef, 'no value assigned' );

[download]

OUTPUT:

1..2
ok 1 - no autovivification
ok 2 - no value assigned

[download]
Bill

In reply to Re^2: Arrow Operator Question by BillKSmith
in thread Arrow Operator Question by sectokia

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