I was under the impression though that the dereference, autovivication, etc. happens within 'exists'. Assuming that is correct, at the first indication that autovivication is going to occur it could return false (and thus prevent the autovivication). Assuming the Perl 5 code base would easily allow for that.

Or is my assumption about when the dereferencing and autovivication occurs wrong?

In reply to Re^2: Why does exists cause autovivication? by Argel
in thread Why does exists cause autovivication? by Argel

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