NAME
    autovivification - Lexically disable autovivification.

VERSION
    Version 0.17

SYNOPSIS
        no autovivification;

        my $hashref;

        my $a = $hashref->{key_a};       # $hashref stays undef

        if (exists $hashref->{option}) { # Still undef
         ...
        }

        delete $hashref->{old};          # Still undef again

        $hashref->{new} = $value;        # Vivifies to { new => $value }

DESCRIPTION
    When an undefined variable is dereferenced, it gets silently upgraded to
    an array or hash reference (depending of the type of the dereferencing).
    This behaviour is called *autovivification* and usually does what you
    mean (e.g. when you store a value) but it may be unnatural or surprising
    because your variables gets populated behind your back. This is
    especially true when several levels of dereferencing are involved, in
    which case all levels are vivified up to the last, or when it happens in
    intuitively read-only constructs like "exists".

    This pragma lets you disable autovivification for some constructs and
    optionally throws a warning or an error when it would have happened.

METHODS
  "unimport"
        no autovivification; # defaults to qw<fetch exists delete>
        no autovivification qw<fetch store exists delete>;
        no autovivification 'warn';
        no autovivification 'strict';

    Magically called when "no autovivification @opts" is encountered.
    Enables the features given in @opts, which can be :

    *   'fetch'

        Turns off autovivification for rvalue dereferencing expressions,
        such as :

            $value = $arrayref->[$idx]
            $value = $hashref->{$key}
            keys %$hashref
            values %$hashref

        Starting from perl 5.11, it also covers "keys" and "values" on array
        references :

            keys @$arrayref
            values @$arrayref

        When the expression would have autovivified, "undef" is returned for
        a plain fetch, while "keys" and "values" return 0 in scalar context
        and the empty list in list context.

    *   'exists'

        Turns off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are
        parts of an "exists", such as :

            exists $arrayref->[$idx]
            exists $hashref->{$key}

        '' is returned when the expression would have autovivified.

    *   'delete'

        Turns off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are
        parts of a "delete", such as :

            delete $arrayref->[$idx]
            delete $hashref->{$key}

        "undef" is returned when the expression would have autovivified.

    *   'store'

        Turns off autovivification for lvalue dereferencing expressions,
        such as :

            $arrayref->[$idx] = $value
            $hashref->{$key} = $value
            for ($arrayref->[$idx]) { ... }
            for ($hashref->{$key}) { ... }
            function($arrayref->[$idx])
            function($hashref->{$key})

        An exception is thrown if vivification is needed to store the value,
        which means that effectively you can only assign to levels that are
        already defined. In the example, this would require $arrayref (resp.
        $hashref) to already be an array (resp. hash) reference.

    *   'warn'

        Emits a warning when an autovivification is avoided.

    *   'strict'

        Throws an exception when an autovivification is avoided.

    Each call to "unimport" adds the specified features to the ones already
    in use in the current lexical scope.

    When @opts is empty, it defaults to "qw<fetch exists delete>".

  "import"
        use autovivification; # default Perl behaviour
        use autovivification qw<fetch store exists delete>;

    Magically called when "use autovivification @opts" is encountered.
    Disables the features given in @opts, which can be the same as for
    "unimport".

    Each call to "import" removes the specified features to the ones already
    in use in the current lexical scope.

    When @opts is empty, it defaults to restoring the original Perl
    autovivification behaviour.

CONSTANTS
  "A_THREADSAFE"
    True if and only if the module could have been built with thread-safety
    features enabled. This constant only has a meaning when your perl is
    threaded, otherwise it will always be false.

  "A_FORKSAFE"
    True if and only if this module could have been built with fork-safety
    features enabled. This constant will always be true, except on Windows
    where it is false for perl 5.10.0 and below.

CAVEATS
    Using this pragma will cause a slight global slowdown of any subsequent
    compilation phase that happens anywere in your code - even outside of
    the scope of use of "no autovivification" - which may become noticeable
    if you rely heavily on numerous calls to "eval STRING".

    The pragma doesn't apply when one dereferences the returned value of an
    array or hash slice, as in "@array[$id]->{member}" or
    @hash{$key}->{member}. This syntax is valid Perl, yet it is discouraged
    as the slice is here useless since the dereferencing enforces scalar
    context. If warnings are turned on, Perl will complain about one-element
    slices.

    Autovivifications that happen in code "eval"'d during the global
    destruction phase of a spawned thread or pseudo-fork (the processes used
    internally for the "fork" emulation on Windows) are not reported.

DEPENDENCIES
    perl 5.8.3.

    A C compiler. This module may happen to build with a C++ compiler as
    well, but don't rely on it, as no guarantee is made in this regard.

    XSLoader (standard since perl 5.6.0).

SEE ALSO
    perlref.

AUTHOR
    Vincent Pit, "<perl at profvince.com>", <http://www.profvince.com>.

    You can contact me by mail or on "irc.perl.org" (vincent).

BUGS
    Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-autovivification at
    rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=autovivification>. I
    will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress
    on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT
    You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

        perldoc autovivification

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Matt S. Trout asked for it.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
    Copyright 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2017 Vincent Pit, all
    rights reserved.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.