Speed up hash initialization loop

[austinj]

I have the following code where I loop through several files (approx 300) and get the corresponding values from them. this builds a large hash where the first key is the profile name, followed by the info you want. Unfortunately this slows down significantly when I run a large number of files. It runs approx 0.05 seconds per profile if I do < 30 files but if I do a large number (300+) it takes up to 1.0 seconds per profile. Is there a way I can initialize the hash or someway speed this up when it is running a large number? Thanks

          foreach my $customProf (@{scalar2array($Settings->{custom_pl
+ots}[$i][$t]{profiles})}){
            if(exists $profEvntVar->{$customProf}){next;}

            my ($evnt_nums_ref,$var_names_ref,$variables_ref,$last_evn
+t_name) = getvars($customProf);
            $profEvntVar->{$customProf}{events} = $evnt_nums_ref;  #Li
+nk profiles with their respective events
            $profEvntVar->{$customProf}{times} = $evnt_times_ref;  #Li
+nk profiles with their respective events
            $profEvntVar->{$customProf}{vars} = $var_names_ref;      #
+Link profiles with their respective variables
            $profEvntVar->{$customProf}{varsref} = $variables_ref;    
+  #Link profiles with their respective variables           
            $profEvntVar->{$customProf}{lastEvent} = $last_evnt_name; 
+   #Link profiles with their respective variables
          }

sub getvars{
my $profile = shift(@_);
my @ptk_info = `<system_command_here>`;
my $evnt_nums_ref;
my $events_found = 0;
my $vars;
my $prof_var_names;
my $last_evnt_name;

foreach (@ptk_info){
   if(/^\s*(\d*\.\d*)0\s-\s(.*?)\s*$/){
      $evnt_nums_ref->{$2} = $1;
      $last_evnt_name = $2;
   }
   if($events_found == 1 && /^\b/){
         push( @{$vars}, split(" ") );
   }
   elsif($events_found == 0 && /^Events$/){
      $events_found = 1;
   }
}
foreach (@{$vars}){
   if(/(.{1,8})\S*:\S*/){
      $prof_var_names->{$1} = $_;
   }
   else{
      $prof_var_names->{$_} = $_;
   }
}

my @sorted_vars = sort { lc($a) cmp lc($b) } @{$vars};     


return $evnt_nums_ref,$prof_var_names,\@sorted_vars,$last_evnt_name;