These benchmarks are unreliable due to the mutating aspect of some of the functions. With original list copying, the results change (eplam and chorba now tied). Also, reporting whether the code is mutating and/or offends Perl::Critic can help in actually deciding what really is best. (modify Perl::Critic settings to taste)

ok 1 - mca
       is mutating
       does not offend Perl::Critic
ok 2 - choroba
       is NOT mutating
       offends Perl::Critic
           Expression form of "grep" at line 6, column 5. See page 169
+ of PBP.
           Expression form of "map" at line 6, column 20. See page 169
+ of PBP.
ok 3 - tux
       is NOT mutating
       does not offend Perl::Critic
ok 4 - eplam
       is mutating
       does not offend Perl::Critic
           Rate   eplam choroba     mca     tux
eplam   41701/s      --     -2%    -40%    -54%
choroba 42626/s      2%      --    -39%    -53%
mca     69930/s     68%     64%      --    -23%
tux     91241/s    119%    114%     30%      --
1..4
[download]

More honest benchmark code:

use 5.14.2;
#use warnings;
no strict 'refs';
no warnings 'uninitialized';

use Perl::Critic;
use Test::More;
use Benchmark qw( cmpthese );

# Returns non-empty strings with leading and trailing spaces removed.
my %tests = (
    mca => <<'MCA',
sub mca # McA
{
    grep { $_ ne "" } map { s/^\s+//; s/\s+$//; $_ } @_;
    }
MCA
    tux => <<'TUX',
sub tux # Tux
{
    map { defined $_ ? m/(\S(?:.*\S)?)/ : () } @_;
    }
TUX
    choroba => <<'CHOROBA',
sub choroba # choroba
{
    grep !m/^$/ => map s/^\s+|\s+$//gr => @_
    }
CHOROBA
    eplam => <<'EPLAM',
sub eplam # eyepopslikeamosquito
{
    grep { !m/^\s*$/ && s/^\s*|\s*$//g } @_;
    }
EPLAM
);

my @orig = (" hello ", "\thello again\t", "", " ",
     undef, " \t", "jock", "\t abc", "def \t ");
my @e = ("hello", "hello again", "jock", "abc", "def");
my @x;

# Configure Perl::Critic as you will:
my $critic = Perl::Critic->new(-severity => 4);

sub test {
    my ($name, $code) = @_;
    eval $code;
    @x = @orig;
    is_deeply ([ &$name(@x) ], \@e, $name);
    say "       ", (eq_array(\@orig, \@x) ? "is NOT mutating" : "is mu
+tating");
    # Optional fixups that your Perl::Critic config expects
    $code = <<"FAKE_CODE";
package Foo;
use strict;
use warnings;
$code;
1;
FAKE_CODE
    say "       ", ($critic->critique(\$code) ? "offends Perl::Critic"
+ : "does not offend Perl::Critic");
    print "           ", $_ for $critic->critique(\$code);
}

my %compare;
for (keys %tests) {
    my ($name, $code) = ($_, $tests{$_});
    test $name => $code;
    $compare{$name} = sub { @x = @orig; my @y = &$name(@x); };
}

cmpthese (1000000, \%compare);

done_testing;
[download]

Update: Added reporting about whether method is mutating or not.

Update 2: Ok, just having fun now, added inline Perl::Critic check and reporting.

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.