Are you sure that leaving it that way is a bad thing?

Have you tried to Benchmark each way to see if it is really faster?

If you want more optimized code, look at _Effect Perl Programming_ (written with the help of merlyn) or _Mastering Algorithms with Perl_. Both books provide new ways of doing things that most don't think of.

I hope this helps.

J. J. Horner

Linux, Perl, Apache, Stronghold, Unix

jhorner@knoxlug.org http://www.knoxlug.org