You can protect against it with || (at the cost of some ugliness), like so: 
# instead of: if (exists $x->{a}[0]{c}) {
if (exists ${ ${ $x->{a} || [] }[0] || {} }{c}) {

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In reply to Re: exists on hash autovivifies right? by ysth
in thread exists on hash autovivifies right? by Anonymous Monk

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