Should exists() add elements to the hash it queries? It seems to in this script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
# test perl script
# check behavior of "exists"
# reported to activestate as bug 1747 4/11/01
 
%test_hash = () ;

$key1 = 'x' ;

$key2 = 'y' ;

if ( exists $test_hash{$key1} ) {
   print "The key exists\n" ;
}
else {
   print "The key does not exist\n" ;
}

if ( exists $test_hash{$key1}{$key2} ) {
   print "The double key exists\n" ;
}
else {
   print "The double key does not exist\n" ;
}

if ( exists $test_hash{$key1} ) {
   print "The key exists now\n" ;
}
else {
   print "The key still does not exist\n" ;
}

# end of script ---------------------------
[download]

The result I get is:

The key does not exist
The double key does not exist
The key exists now
[download]

I tried this on ActiveState build 620 and Sun OS version 5.000. Is this a bug or do I just not understand?

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