#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Benchmark qw( cmpthese ); my $str = ( ('X'x15) . ',' ) x 3; cmpthese( -1, { # using regex 's///' => sub { my ( $first ) = $str =~ m/(.*?),/; }, # using split without limit 'split_unl' => sub { my ( $first ) = split( m/,/, $str ); }, # using split with limit 'split_lim' => sub { my ( $first ) = split( m/,/, $str, 2 ); }, # using split with limit and slice for scalar assignment 'split_lim_sca' => sub { my $first = ( split( m/,/, $str, 2 ) )[0]; }, } )