http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=505157

A coworker came to me with a very simple question: How would you assign the maximum of two numbers? I.e., $a = the larger of $b and $c. Here's what I found:
Rate sort sort2 loop ternary List sort 112734/s -- -1% -39% -48% -67% sort2 113778/s 1% -- -39% -48% -67% loop 185579/s 65% 63% -- -15% -46% ternary 217375/s 93% 91% 17% -- -37% List 344926/s 206% 203% 86% 59% --
here's the benchmark script:
use List::Util qw(max); sub assignmax { @a = sort{$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)}, };


So, can you think of any other ways, and are any of them faster than List::Util?

update: for those who think this is too trivial a thought, so was watching mold grow until it was turned into penicillin.