Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of Grep, Max, Ternary...
      Grep:  8 wallclock secs ( 8.39 usr +  0.00 sys =  8.39 CPU)
       Max: 26 wallclock secs (25.82 usr +  0.00 sys = 25.82 CPU)
   Ternary: 27 wallclock secs (25.67 usr +  0.00 sys = 25.67 CPU)

This is perl, version 5.005_03 built for i386-linux