sub multi_add {
  my $sum = 0;
  $sum += $_ foreach @_;
  return $sum;
}

my $result = multi_add(3,4,5);


##</code><code>##


{
  my %dispatch = ();

  sub arbitrary_operator_maker {
    my $operation    = shift;
    my $num_elements  = shift;
    
    my $dispatch_key = "$operation$num_elements";
    
      return $dispatch{$dispatch_key} if $dispatch{$dispatch_key};
    
    my $built = join $operation, map {'$_[' . $_ . ']'} (0..$num_elements - 1);

    return $dispatch{$dispatch_key} = eval "sub { $built }";
  }
}


##</code><code>##


my $add_3_things = arbitrary_operator_maker('+', 3);

my $result = $add_3_things->(3,4,5);
print "$result\n";

my $other_result = $add_3_things->(77,88,99);
print "$other_result\n";

#etc.


##</code><code>##


my $add_3_things = arbitrary_operator_maker('+', 3);

$add_3_things internally looks like:
sub {
  $_[0] + $_[1] + $_[2]
}

my $xor_5_things = arbitrary_operator_maker('^', 5);

$xor_5_things internally looks like:
sub {
  $_[0] ^ $_[1] ^ $_[2] ^ $_[3] ^ $_[4]
}


##</code><code>##


my $op = '+';
my $and_maker_5 = arbitrary_operator_maker($op, 5);

my @list_5 = (1..5);

timethese(1000000, {
  'and_maker 5 elements cached' => sub {
    $and_maker_5->(@list_5);
  },
  'and_maker 5 elements dispatched' => sub {
    my $and_maker_5 = arbitrary_operator_maker($op, 5);
    $and_maker_5->(@list_5);
  },
  'multi_add 5 elements' => sub {
    multi_add(@list_5);
  },
});

Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of and_maker 5 elements cached, and_maker 5 elements dispatched, multi_add 5 elements...
and_maker 5 elements cached:  2 wallclock secs ( 0.98 usr +  0.00 sys =  0.98 CPU) @ 1020408.16/s (n=1000000)
and_maker 5 elements dispatched:  4 wallclock secs ( 2.95 usr +  0.01 sys =  2.96 CPU) @ 337837.84/s (n=1000000)
multi_add 5 elements:  3 wallclock secs ( 2.53 usr +  0.01 sys =  2.54 CPU) @ 393700.79/s (n=1000000)