$text =~ s/^\s+//g;
  $text =~ s/\s+$//g;

##</code><code>##

#! /usr/local/bin/perl -w

use Benchmark qw/:all/;
`
my $long  = ' aaa bbb ccc' . (' ' x 100).'ggg  hhh ';
my $short = ' aaa bbb ccc ddd  eee fff    ggg  hhh ';

sub one_long {
    my $s = $long;
    $s =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
    $s;
}

sub one_short {
    my $s = $short;
    $s =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
    $s;
}

sub two_long {
    my $s = $long;
    $s =~ s/^\s+//g;
    $s =~ s/\s+$//g;
    $s;
}

sub two_short {
    my $s = $short;
    $s =~ s/^\s+//g;
    $s =~ s/\s+$//g;
    $s;
}

print "tests:\n";
{
    no strict 'subs';
    print "$_ [", &$_, "]\n"
        for qw/one_long one_short two_long two_short/;
}

cmpthese(
    shift || 1000,
    {
        one_long  => \&one_long,
        one_short => \&one_short,
        two_long  => \&two_long,
        two_short => \&two_short,
    }
);
__PRODUCES__
tests:
one_long [aaa bbb ccc                                                                                                    ggg  hhh]
one_short [aaa bbb ccc ddd  eee fff    ggg  hhh]
two_long [aaa bbb ccc                                                                                                    ggg  hhh]
two_short [aaa bbb ccc ddd  eee fff    ggg  hhh]
Benchmark: timing 100000 iterations of one_long, one_short, two_long, two_short...
  one_long:  8 wallclock secs ( 7.13 usr +  0.00 sys =  7.13 CPU) @ 14019.72/s (n=100000)
 one_short:  2 wallclock secs ( 1.62 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.62 CPU) @ 61835.75/s (n=100000)
  two_long:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.62 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.62 CPU) @ 160000.00/s (n=100000)
 two_short:  0 wallclock secs ( 0.63 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.63 CPU) @ 158024.69/s (n=100000)
              Rate  one_long one_short two_short  two_long
one_long   14020/s        --      -77%      -91%      -91%
one_short  61836/s      341%        --      -61%      -61%
two_short 158025/s     1027%      156%        --       -1%
two_long  160000/s     1041%      159%        1%        --