My basic question is how to print a hash key that will only be there in some records. I thought the "if exists" might work but it clearly doesn't.

Um, your code fragment is incomplete, it does not demonstrate "if exist" not working

See Access Hashes of Hashes etc. and Re^2: Unique value count in hash not working properly 

$ perl -Mstrict -e " my $foo = { 1, 1 }; exists $foo->{1}{2} "
Can't use string ("1") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at -e 
+line 1.

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In reply to Re^3: If exists (hash) by Anonymous Monk
in thread If exists (hash) by packetstormer

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