I can see how you might interpret it that way, but the last sentence in my previous post clarifies that I was talking about when the events occur. I guess I'm just stumbling over what the correct terminology to use is and I apologize for that.

So, lets try this again. When do the dereferencing and autovivication occur? Do they happen first and then the autovivified version is passed to 'exists'? Or does it happen after the parameter is passed to 'exists'?

If the former then my entire question was off-base. If the latter, then in the OP I was asking why it was implemented this way.

I like your idea about an "exists context" -- that certainly seems appropriate. Though I'm guessing that may be hard to implement?

Anyway, thanks for putting up with my poorly worded questions and thanks for the answers!

In reply to Re^4: Why does exists cause autovivication? by Argel
in thread Why does exists cause autovivication? by Argel

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.