Why?
Sounds premature to me
#!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict;
use warnings;
use Benchmark qw( cmpthese );
# Make bytes:: functions available, but use character semantics.
use bytes;
no bytes;
cmpthese(
-3,
{ bytes => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while bytes::length($smileys);
},
utf8 => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while length($smileys);
},
substr => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while ord substr($smileys,0,1);
},
notnot => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while !! $smileys;
},
'!!bytes' => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while !! bytes::length($smileys);
},
'!!utf8' => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while !! length $smileys;
},
'ne""' => sub {
my $smileys = "\x{263a}" x 10_000;
chop($smileys) while $smileys ne "";
},
}
);
__END__
Rate substr utf8 !!utf8 bytes !!bytes ne"" notnot
substr 3.75/s -- -3% -4% -97% -97% -99% -99%
utf8 3.86/s 3% -- -1% -97% -97% -99% -99%
!!utf8 3.90/s 4% 1% -- -97% -97% -99% -99%
bytes 119/s 3066% 2972% 2942% -- -0% -71% -74%
!!bytes 119/s 3081% 2987% 2956% 0% -- -71% -74%
ne"" 406/s 10740% 10419% 10314% 242% 241% -- -10%
notnot 451/s 11928% 11572% 11455% 280% 278% 11% --