$s = 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'; 

cmpthese -1,{
    a => q[ if( $s =~ m[(lazy)]){ $found=$1 }         ],
    b => q[ $found = 'lazy' if 1+index( $s, 'lazy' ); ],
    c => q[ $found = 'lazy' if $s =~ 'lazy';          ],
};;
       Rate    a    b    c
a  577066/s   -- -77% -79%
b 2492720/s 332%   -- -11%
c 2791311/s 384%  12%   --
[0]{} Perl>