#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Benchmark;
my $val="      Smart Way    ";

timethese(1000000, {
regex1 => sub {
    my $tmp = $val;
    $tmp =~ s/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/$1/g;
  },
  regex2 => sub {
    my $tmp = $val;
    $val = join (" ",split " ",$val);
  },
  regex3 => sub {
    my $tmp = $val;
    $tmp =~ s/^\s+//;
    $tmp =~ s/\s+$//;
  }
});
[download]

One thing you want to watch with regex2...

regex2 => sub {
    my $tmp = $val;
    $val = join (" ",split " ",$val);
  },
[download]

... is if the variable has spaces contained in the phrase that you want to keep, this will get rid of them...

$var = "     Smart   Way      ";
$val = join (" ",split " ",$val);
print "var:  $var\n";  # $var now "Smart Way", internal spaces gone.
[download]

regex1 and regex2 would retain the internal spaces.