Quick question: is there a big speed difference between these two methods of reading an entire text/xml file?

1. while loop reading file line by line: 

my $xml;
while (<SITE>) {
    $xml .= $_;
}

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2. slurping all at once: 
my $xml;
{
   local($/);
   undef $/;
   $xml = <SITE>;
}

[download]
I'd expect method 2 to be faster but I don't know if there are any other issues to consider. Thanks to anyone who has experience with this and cares to comment.

In reply to Reading entire file into scalar: speed differences? by theguvnor

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