Let's let Benchmark do the talking... 
my( $name, $ascii );
foreach ( qw/ONE TWO THREE FOUR/ ) {
  $name = ucfirst lc;
  $ascii = $name;
  $ascii =~ s/(.)/ord $1/ge;
  print $ascii;
  last if $ascii =~ /\d{6,}/;
}
undef $name;
undef $ascii;

# or

foreach ( qw/ONE TWO THREE FOUR/ ) {
  my $name = ucfirst lc;
  my $ascii = $name;
  $ascii =~ s/(.)/ord $1/ge;
  print $ascii;
  last if $ascii =~ /\d{6,}/;
}

[download]
I decided to do this with a couple of sets of iterations... 
Benchmark: timing 100000 iterations of InLoop, OutLoop...
    InLoop:  4 wallclock secs ( 3.23 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.23 CPU) @ 30
+959.75/s (n=100000)
   OutLoop:  3 wallclock secs ( 3.59 usr +  0.00 sys =  3.59 CPU) @ 27
+855.15/s (n=100000)

Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of InLoop, OutLoop...
    InLoop: 38 wallclock secs (32.36 usr +  0.00 sys = 32.36 CPU) @ 30
+902.35/s (n=1000000)
   OutLoop: 40 wallclock secs (34.82 usr +  0.00 sys = 34.82 CPU) @ 28
+719.13/s (n=1000000)

Benchmark: timing 10000000 iterations of InLoop, OutLoop...
    InLoop: 372 wallclock secs (322.27 usr +  0.09 sys = 322.36 CPU) @
+ 31021.22/s (n=10000000)
   OutLoop: 411 wallclock secs (347.93 usr +  0.23 sys = 348.16 CPU) @
+ 28722.43/s (n=10000000)

[download]
Looks pretty close to me, IMHO Initialize _inside_ the loop.

Enjoy! 

--
Casey

In reply to Re: Performance question by cwest
in thread Performance question by Anonymous Monk

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