perl -e '$k="aaaaa"; for $i (1..1_000_000) { $h1{$k}={foo=>"bar",bar=>"foo",iter=>$i}; $h1{$k}{total}++; $k++} sleep 20' ## consumes 344 MB in ~14.4 sec perl -e '$k="aaaaa"; for $i (1..1_000_000) {$h1{$k}={foo=>"bar",bar=>"foo",iter=>$i}; $h2{$k}++; $k++} sleep 20' ## consumes 352 MB in ~15.0 sec perl -e '$k="aaaaa"; for $i (1..1_000_000) {$h1{$k}={foo=>"bar",bar=>"foo"}; $h2{$k}++; $h3{$k}=$i; $k++} sleep 20' ## consumes 360 MB in ~16.5 sec