Doing it in two steps is more efficient. From perlfaq4: 
    It is much better faster to do this in two steps: 

        $string =~ s/^\s+//;
        $string =~ s/\s+$//;

    Or more nicely written as: 

        for ($string) {
            s/^\s+//;
            s/\s+$//;
        }

[download]
Here's a benchmark: 
    use Benchmark;

    timethese(500_000, {
            one => sub {
        my $foo = "    perl monks    ";
            $foo =~ s/^\s+|\s+$//g;
        },

        two => sub {
            my $foo = "    perl monks    ";
            for ($foo) {
                s/^\s+//;
                s/\s+$//;
            }
        },
    });

[download]
And here are the results: 
    Benchmark: timing 500000 iterations of one, two...
       one: 11 secs (11.75 usr  0.00 sys = 11.75 cpu)
       two:  8 secs ( 7.57 usr  0.00 sys =  7.57 cpu)

[download]

In reply to RE: (bbq) Re(4): Another flatfile thingy by btrott
in thread Another flatfile thingy by BBQ

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