#! perl -sw use strict; use Benchmark qw(cmpthese); sub mapgen { return map $_[0], (1..$_[1]); } sub xgen { return ($_[0]) x $_[1]; } cmpthese( 1000, { mapgen => 'my @ones = mapgen 1, 1000;', xgen => 'my @ones = xgen 1, 1000;', }); __END__ Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of mapgen, xgen... mapgen: 9 wallclock secs ( 8.18 usr + 0.00 sys = 8.18 CPU) @ 122.23/s (n=1000) xgen: 5 wallclock secs ( 5.15 usr + 0.00 sys = 5.15 CPU) @ 194.29/s (n=1000) Rate mapgen xgen mapgen 122/s -- -37% xgen 194/s 59% -- C:\test>