#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict; # https://perlmonks.org/?node_id=11164441
use warnings;
use Time::HiRes qw( time );

my $input = 'foobarmul(123,456)' x 3e6;
my $start;

$start = time;
my $count1 = () = $input =~ /mul\(\d{1,3},\d{1,3}\)/g;
printf "  list context  count1 %d  time %.3f\n", $count1, time - $start;

$start = time;
my $count2 = 0;
++$count2 while $input =~ /mul\(\d{1,3},\d{1,3}\)/g;
printf "scalar context  count2 %d  time %.3f\n", $count2, time - $start;