NAME
    autovivification - Lexically disable autovivification.

VERSION
    Version 0.03

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

    *   'fetch'

        Turn off autovivification for rvalue dereferencing expressions, such
        as "$value = $hashref->{key}[$idx]{$field}", "keys
        %{$hashref->{key}}" or "values %{$hashref->{key}}". 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'

        Turn off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are
        parts of an "exists", such as "exists
        $hashref->{key}[$idx]{$field}". '' is returned when the expression
        would have autovivified.

    *   'delete'

        Turn off autovivification for dereferencing expressions that are
        parts of a "delete", such as "delete $hashref->{key}[$idx]{$field}".
        "undef" is returned when the expression would have autovivified.

    *   'store'

        Turn off autovivification for lvalue dereferencing expressions, such
        as "$hashref->{key}[$idx]{$field} = $value" or "for
        ($hashref->{key}[$idx]{$field}) { ... }". 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 "$hashref->{key}[$idx]" to
        already be a hash reference).

    *   'warn'

        Emit a warning when an autovivification is avoided.

    *   'strict'

        Throw 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 @opts"
    Magically called when "use autovivification" 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.

DEPENDENCIES
    perl 5.8.

    XSLoader (standard since perl 5.006).

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

    Tests code coverage report is available at
    <http://www.profvince.com/perl/cover/autovivification>.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Matt S. Trout asked for it.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
    Copyright 2009 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.