use List::Util qw(max); sub assignmax { (sort { $b<=>$a } @_)[0]; } sub assignmax5 { (sort @_)[-1]; } sub assignmax2 { $_[0] > $_[1] ? $_[0] : $_[1]; } sub assignmax3 { max(@_); } sub assignmax4 { my $a; for (@_) { $a = $_ if $_ > $a; } $a; } @r = map {int rand 1000}(0..1); use Benchmark qw(cmpthese); cmpthese -1,{ 'sort' => sub {assignmax(@r)}, 'sort2' => sub {assignmax5(@r)}, 'ternary' => sub {assignmax2(@r)}, 'List' => sub {assignmax3(@r)}, 'loop' => sub {assignmax4(@r)}, };