$char = chr ord $string;



##</code><code>##


    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

    use strict;

    use Benchmark 'cmpthese';

    my $str = "some string here";


    cmpthese( 500000, {
               'pop_chord' => sub { pop_chord($str) },
               '_substr'   => sub { _substr($str)   },
               '_unpack'   => sub { _unpack($str)   },
               '_match'    => sub { _match($str)    },
              }
        );


    sub pop_chord {
        chr ord pop
    }

    sub _substr {
        substr pop,0,1
    }

    sub _unpack {
        unpack"a",pop
    }

    sub _match {
        (pop=~/(.)/s)[0]
    }


    __END__


    Benchmark:
    timing 500000 iterations of _match, _substr, _unpack, pop_chord

        _match:  3 secs (3.22 usr + 0.01 sys = 3.23 CPU) @ 154798.76/s

       _substr:  0 secs (0.85 usr + 0.00 sys = 0.85 CPU) @ 588235.29/s

       _unpack:  2 secs (2.04 usr + 0.00 sys = 2.04 CPU) @ 245098.04/s

     pop_chord:  1 secs (0.73 usr + 0.00 sys = 0.73 CPU) @ 684931.51/s

                  Rate    _match   _unpack   _substr pop_chord
    _match    154799/s        --      -37%      -74%      -77%
    _unpack   245098/s       58%        --      -58%      -64%
    _substr   588235/s      280%      140%        --      -14%
    pop_chord 684932/s      342%      179%       16%        --