note Joost autovivication basically means that datastructures are automatically expanded at first use. <p> For instance, if you've got a hash and access a not previously instantiated element and treat it like a hash reference, a hash reference will be created for you: <c> #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my %hash = (); $hash{a}->{b} = 1; print $hash{a}->{b}; </c> This means you need to do less explicit typing/instantiating, at the cost of possibly accidentally creating structures that aren't there when you mistype. <p> Note that perl will still throw an error when you for example treat a hash reference as an array reference, so there's still <em>some</em> checking going on. <P> <!-- Node text goes above. Div tags should contain sig only --> <div class="pmsig"><div class="pmsig-157432"> <em>[id://149675|"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"]</em> </div></div> 691557 691557