#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Benchmark qw(:all); my $length = (int rand 100) + 100; my @char = ( 'a' .. 'c' , '+' , 'd' .. 'f' ); my $string; $string .= $char[ int rand 7 ] for 0 .. $length ; my $count = -5; my $results = timethese ( $count, { 'transliterate' => sub { my $foo = $string; $foo =~ tr/+/ /; }, 'substitution' => sub { my $bar = $string; $bar =~s/\+/ /g; }, }, 'none' ); cmpthese( $results ) ; __END__ Rate substitution transliterate substitution 124624/s -- -84% transliterate 784349/s 529% --