#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; use Benchmark qw(cmpthese); sub xform { map {$_->[0]} sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1]} map {[$_, rand(1)]} @_; } sub slice { my @random; push @random, rand 1 for 0 .. $#_; @_[ sort { $random[$a] <=> $random[$b] } 0 .. $#_ ]; } my @array = 1 .. 1000; cmpthese(1000, { slice => sub { slice @array }, xform => sub { xform @array }, }); __END__ Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of slice, xform... slice: 17 wallclock secs (16.96 usr + 0.08 sys = 17.04 CPU) @ 58.69/s (n=1000) xform: 28 wallclock secs (27.76 usr + 0.12 sys = 27.88 CPU) @ 35.87/s (n=1000) Rate xform slice xform 35.9/s -- -39% slice 58.7/s 64% --