my @all_but_one = splice( @$arrayref, 0, -1 );

##</code><code>##

#! /usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use Benchmark qw/cmpthese/;

my @x = qw/a b c/;

sub with_splice {
    my $aref = shift;
    splice( @$aref, 0, -1 );
}

sub with_range {
    my $aref = shift;
    @{$aref}[0 .. ($#{$aref} - 1)]
}

print 'range ',  join( ' ' => with_range(\@x) ), "\n";
print 'splice ', join( ' ' => with_splice(\@x) ), "\n";

my @z = 0 .. 100_000;

cmpthese(
    shift || 2_000_000, 
    {
        short_splice => sub { with_splice(\@x) },
        short_range  => sub { with_range (\@x) },
    }
);

cmpthese(
    shift || 1_000, 
    {
        long_splice  => sub { with_splice(\@z) },
        long_range   => sub { with_range (\@z) },
    }
);
__RESULTS__
range a b
splice a b
Benchmark: timing 2000000 iterations of short_range, short_splice...
short_range:  9 wallclock secs ( 7.83 usr +  0.00 sys =  7.83 CPU) @ 255489.02/s (n=2000000)
short_splice:  5 wallclock secs ( 5.06 usr +  0.01 sys =  5.07 CPU) @ 394453.00/s (n=2000000)
                 Rate  short_range short_splice
short_range  255489/s           --         -35%
short_splice 394453/s          54%           --
Benchmark: timing 1000 iterations of long_range, long_splice...
long_range: 40 wallclock secs (39.73 usr +  0.02 sys = 39.74 CPU) @ 25.16/s (n=1000)
long_splice:  0 wallclock secs ( 0.01 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.01 CPU) @ 128000.00/s (n=1000)
            (warning: too few iterations for a reliable count)
                Rate  long_range long_splice
long_range    25.2/s          --       -100%
long_splice 128000/s     508600%          --

##</code><code>##

enchmark: timing 300000 iterations of short_range, short_splice...
short_range:  2 wallclock secs ( 1.16 usr +  0.00 sys =  1.16 CPU) @ 259459.46/s (n=300000)
short_splice:  1 wallclock secs ( 0.75 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.75 CPU) @ 400000.00/s (n=300000)
                 Rate  short_range short_splice
short_range  259459/s           --         -35%
short_splice 400000/s          54%           --
Benchmark: timing 200000 iterations of long_range, long_splice...
long_range: 36 wallclock secs (37.30 usr +  0.00 sys = 37.30 CPU) @ 5362.38/s (n=200000)
long_splice:  0 wallclock secs ( 0.50 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.50 CPU) @ 400000.00/s (n=200000)
                Rate  long_range long_splice
long_range    5362/s          --        -99%
long_splice 400000/s       7359%          --