"How is perl to know ..."

Of course it knows, it is just the language's choice to do so, the whole autovivification thing can be avoided, for the good.

It is not that perl does not know, the language designer made it to respond that way.

In reply to Re^2: Why does exists cause autovivication? by Anonymous Monk
in thread Why does exists cause autovivication? by Argel

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