"Label__$options{r}_$date" is a string, exists tests for the presence of a hash key. You could do an exists on $options{r}, but not a string.

Your use of the term 'label' is confusing. In Perl, a label is a loop identifier, see perlsyn and, unless you are playing with eval magic, is hardcoded. Maybe you expect us to remember some previous post you did? Problems with that is that you are signed-on as Anonymous Monk, so we can't look back at your previous posts to see what you are doing.