When you can explain that; then you may pontificate on the subject.

Explanation: You wrote broken code. 

$_ = 'USERID1|2215|Jones|';
my( $x, $y, $z ) = split /\|/;
print "( $x, $y, $z )\n";
( $x, $y, $z ) = split /\|/, 3;
print "( $x, $y, $z )\n";
__END__
( USERID1, 2215, Jones )
( 3, ,  )

[download]

Thanks for the permission. (:

Update: Oh, and the explanation for the other part of the "(much) more complicated" mystery: 

             Rate  outside   inside  inside2 outside2
outside   58201/s       --     -38%     -71%     -73%
inside    93659/s      61%       --     -53%     -57%
inside2  197610/s     240%     111%       --     -10%
outside2 218802/s     276%     134%      11%       --

[download]

That is, why is "outside" faster than "inside" while "inside2" is faster than "outside2"? Well, that's the classic point I try to get people to remember all the time: "11%" is simply "noise". Whether "inside2" or "outside2" will "win" depends on mostly random stuff (which one gets run first being the least random contributor that I've noticed).

- tye        

In reply to Re^5: Best way to store/sum multiple-field records? (carte blanche) by tye
in thread Best way to store/sum multiple-field records? by bobdabuilda

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