use strict; use warnings; use Benchmark qw( cmpthese ); { package Foo; sub new { bless {}, shift } sub self { $_[0] } } my $o = Foo->new; cmpthese(-1, { subroutine => sub { my $o = Foo::self( $o ) }, method => sub { my $o = $o->self }, }); __END__ # perl 5.8.7 on my box gives... Rate method subroutine method 579231/s -- -10% subroutine 643109/s 11% --