#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use Benchmark;

$string = "hello world I am a string of some sort of length";

timethese(150_000, {
    "match" => sub { ($char) = $string =~ /^.{4}(.)/;},
    "unpack" => sub { ($char) = unpack("x4 A1", $string);},
    "substr" => sub { ($char) = substr($string,4,1);},
    "silly"  => sub { local $string; $char = chop $string while length $string > 4;},
    });