use Benchmark;

sub dotstar {
    my $data = $testdata;
    $data =~ s/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/$1/;
    return $data;
}

sub first_n_last {
    my $data = $testdata;
    $data =~ s/^\s*//;
    $data =~ s/\s*$//;
    return $data;
}

sub first_n_last_must_match {
    my $data = $testdata;
    $data =~ s/^\s+//;
    $data =~ s/\s+$//;
    return $data;
}

$testdata = ' ' x 200 . "abcd" x 20 . " " x 200;
timethese( 100000, 
    {
        dotstar        => '&dotstar',
        first_n_last_1 => '&first_n_last',
        first_n_last_2 => '&first_n_last_must_match'
    }
)