use warnings; use strict; use Time::HiRes qw/time/; my $common = join "","a".."z"; my @x = map { $common . rand 1 } 1..1e6; my (@a,$a,$b,$start); print "\n--- with full sort\n"; @a=@x; $start=time(); my @b= sort @a; print $b[0],"\n",$b[-1],"\n"; print time -$start,"\n"; print "\n--- with triple sort\n"; @a=@x; $start=time(); $a= shift @a; $b= shift @a; ($a,undef,$b) = sort($a,$_,$b) for @a; print $a,"\n",$b,"\n"; print time -$start,"\n"; print "\n--- with assignment\n"; @a=@x; $start=time(); $a= shift @a; $b= shift @a; for my $x (@a) { $a = ($x,$x,$a)[$a cmp $x]; #next if $a eq $x; $b = ($x,$b,$x)[$b cmp $x]; } print $a,"\n",$b,"\n"; print time -$start,"\n"; print "\n--- with goto\n"; @a=@x; $start=time(); $a= shift @a; $b= shift @a; for my $x (@a) { goto ("NEXT", "NEWMIN", "MAYBEMAX")[$a cmp $x]; NEWMIN: $a=$x; next; MAYBEMAX: goto ("NEXT", "NEXT", "NEWMAX" )[$b cmp $x]; NEWMAX: $b=$x; NEXT: } print $a,"\n",$b,"\n"; print time -$start,"\n";