#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use Benchmark qw(:all); our @array = 'aaaa' .. 'lzzz'; print "$#array\n"; sub original { my %hash; for (my $idx=0; $idx<@array; $idx++) { $hash{$array[$idx]} = $idx;} } sub variation1 { my %hash; @hash{ @array } = 0 .. $#array; } sub variation2 { my %hash = map { $array[$_] => $_ } 0..$#array; } sub variation3 { my $idx = 0; my %hash = map { $_ => $idx++ } @array; } sub variation4 { my $idx = 0; my %hash; $hash{ $_ } = $idx++ for @array; } cmpthese -5, { 'original' => \&original, 'variation1' => \&variation1, 'variation2' => \&variation2, 'variation3' => \&variation3, 'variation4' => \&variation4, }; __END__ C:\test>junk91 210911 Rate variation2 variation3 variation1 original variation4 variation2 2.08/s -- -2% -36% -38% -42% variation3 2.12/s 2% -- -35% -37% -41% variation1 3.26/s 57% 54% -- -3% -9% original 3.37/s 62% 59% 3% -- -6% variation4 3.57/s 72% 68% 9% 6% --