Using y/,/./, instead of s/,/./, should be faster (see "perlperf: Search and replace or tr"). Obviously, I can't say whether it will be noticeably or usefully faster.

You may want the 'r' modifier. Here's a somewhat fudged example for demonstration purposes:

$ perl -E 'say sprintf("3,%d", 14)'
3,14

$ perl -E 'say sprintf("3,%d", 14) =~ y/,/./'
Can't modify constant item in transliteration (tr///) at -e line 1, at
+ EOF
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.

$ perl -E 'say sprintf("3,%d", 14) =~ y/,/./r'
3.14
[download]

If you try this, I'd be interested in what sort of speed improvement you see.