#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Benchmark;

my %hash = (
        DefaultLimit => 900,
        TimeLimit => 900,
        MODE => 'Off'
       );

sub by_hash {
       my $time_to_die;
       if ($hash{'TimeLimit'}) {
          if ($hash{'TimeLimit'} < $hash{'DefaultLimit'}) {
                    $time_to_die = $hash{'TimeLimit'};
                } else {
                        $time_to_die = $hash{'DefaultLimit'};
                }
        } else {
                $time_to_die = $hash{'DefaultLimit'};
        }  
}

sub by_var {
       my ($default, $time_to_die, $limit);
        $default = $hash{'DefaultLimit'};
        $limit = $hash{'TimeLimit'} if ($hash{'TimeLimit'});
        ($limit && ($limit < $default)) ? $time_to_die = $limit : $time_to_die = $default;
}

timethese (100000, { hash => 'by_hash',
          var => 'by_var'});

##</code><code>##

[13:20:12 jhorner@gateway lib]$ ./test1.pl 
Benchmark: timing 100000 iterations of hash, var...
      hash:  5 wallclock secs ( 4.57 usr +  0.00 sys =  4.57 CPU) @ 21881.84/s (n=100000)
       var:  4 wallclock secs ( 3.74 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.74 CPU) @ 26737.97/s (n=100000)
[13:20:24 jhorner@gateway lib]$