my (%by_count, %by_word); # slow cleanup/exiting $ time perl choroba.pl big1.txt big2.txt big3.txt >cpp.tmp start get properties: 21 secs sort + output: 25 secs total: 46 secs real 1m2.072s user 1m0.182s sys 0m1.885s #### our (%by_count, %by_word); # fast cleanup/exiting $ time perl choroba.pl big1.txt big2.txt big3.txt >cpp.tmp start get properties: 21 secs sort + output: 25 secs total: 46 secs real 0m47.062s user 0m45.505s sys 0m1.549s