So ... with the discussion of "what if i really wanted to put an undef in there b/c it's not just that i haven't defined it but rather that it really isn't defined. I KNOW it's not defined, and i'm now explicitly saying it's undefined as opposed to before when i was implicitly suggesting that i didn't know what it was and used a default 'unknown'" discussion ...
What we really need is: @a[2] = undef but undef; or, possibly (more tongue-in-cheek-y) @a[2] = undef but seriously; so the ... property? would say "you have a default, maybe, but i don't care. this is REALLY undef" is that possible? aside from it being disturbing to write "undef but undef" :o --attriel (the first suggestion is serious, but the syntax is flawed; the second suggestion has better syntax but is tongue-in-cheek suggested ... )