:~$ perl -wde0 ... DB<1> my %a; $a{1}=$a{1}+1;print $a{1} Use of uninitialized value $a{"1"} in addition (+) at (eval 5)[/usr/share/perl/5.10/perl5db.pl:638] line 2. ... 1 DB<2> my %a; $a{1}++;print $a{1} 1