You fallen into a common* gotcha, so don't feel too bad. You might want to browse through the following perlarchive article, which explains autovivification in full...

http://www.perlarchive.com/___TLC/7026.shtml

* updated spelling mistake

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my name's not Keith, and I'm not reasonable.

In reply to Re: Should calling 'exists' create a hash key? by reasonablekeith
in thread Should calling 'exists' create a hash key? by mje

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