use Benchmark; my @array = (6252,8278, ...array of 200 4 digit integers...; timethese(0, { sorty => \&sorty, space => \&spaceship, comp => \&comp }); sub sorty { return sort @array } sub comp { return sort {$a cmp $b} @array } sub spaceship { return sort {$a <=> $b} @array } ## gives: Benchmark: running comp, sorty, space, each for at least 3 CPU seconds... comp: 2 wallclock secs ( 3.05 usr + 0.02 sys = 3.07CPU) @ 617076.87/s (n=1894426) sorty: 1 wallclock secs ( 3.06 usr + -0.00 sys = 3.06CPU) @ 650267.65/s (n=1989819) space: 3 wallclock secs ( 3.38 usr + 0.02 sys = 3.40CPU) @ 590187.65/s (n=2006638)