#!/usr/bin/perl

use Benchmark qw(cmpthese);
use List::Util qw(reduce);


cmpthese (-5,
    {
        'initial' => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            my $total = 1;
            for(@numbers){
            $total = ($total * $_);
            }
        },
        'listutil' => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            reduce{ $a*=$b } @numbers;
        },
        'eval'    => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            eval join "*", @numbers;
        },
        '*='     => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            my $total=1;
            $total *= $_ for @numbers;
        },
        'map'     => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            my $total=1;
            map { $total *= $_ } @numbers;
        },        
        'reducing'     => sub {
            my @numbers = (2,3,4,5);
            $numbers[0] *= pop @numbers while ( @numbers > 1 );
        },
    });

##</code><code>##

C:\test>perl reduce.pl
             Rate     eval listutil  initial       *=      map reducing
eval      19089/s       --     -86%     -90%     -91%     -93%     -93%
listutil 136513/s     615%       --     -27%     -39%     -47%     -51%
initial  187039/s     880%      37%       --     -16%     -27%     -33%
*=       223842/s    1073%      64%      20%       --     -13%     -20%
map      256001/s    1241%      88%      37%      14%       --      -8%
reducing 278189/s    1357%     104%      49%      24%       9%       --

C:\test>perl reduce.pl
             Rate     eval listutil  initial       *= reducing      map
eval      19656/s       --     -87%     -92%     -92%     -93%     -94%
listutil 150598/s     666%       --     -35%     -39%     -47%     -51%
initial  232290/s    1082%      54%       --      -6%     -19%     -24%
*=       247322/s    1158%      64%       6%       --     -14%     -20%
reducing 286024/s    1355%      90%      23%      16%       --      -7%
map      307455/s    1464%     104%      32%      24%       7%       --

C:\test>