use List::Util qw(max); sub assignmax { @a = sort{$b<=>$a}@_; shift @a; } sub assignmax5 { @a = sort@_; pop @a; } sub assignmax2 { ($b,$c) = @_; $b > $c ? $b : $c; } sub assignmax3 { max(@_); } sub assignmax4 { my $a=undef; for (@_) { $a = $_ if $_ > $a; } $a; } @r = map {int rand 1000}(0..1); use Benchmark qw(cmpthese); cmpthese -1,{ 'sort' => sub {assignmax(@r)}, 'sort2' => sub {assignmax5(@r)}, 'ternary' => sub {assignmax2(@r)}, 'List' => sub {assignmax3(@r)}, 'loop' => sub {assignmax4(@r)}, };