don't know if this will help but I sometimes have proables with the same thing and this is how I solved it:

$hash{"name"} = "this and that" if defined $name; #name has data
#or
$hash{"name"} = "this and that" unless defined $name; #name empty

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Update: added empty code and comments

"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - I think that I think, therefore I think that I am." Ambrose Bierce

In reply to Re: single line if conditional by kutsu
in thread single line if conditional by Anonymous Monk

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