my $sql = "select Name, Writeups from employees e, groups g where e.Level = g.Level and g.Level = 'Pope (28)' order by e.Writeups desc "; my $answer = 0; for my $emp (@{$dbh->selectall_arrayref($sql, {Slice => {}})}) { $answer += 1; } print "Answer: $answer\n"; print "Time after loop: ", time() - $start, $/; $start = time; $dbh->disconnect;