require is a no-op if called multiple times on the same module, so you can just move it into the function. You can also shorten the code by collapsing the outer for into a map: 
sub _utf8_on_all_arrayref {
    require Encode;
    Encode::_utf8_on($_) for map @$_, @{$_[0]};
    $_[0];
}

[download]
 
sub _utf8_on_all_arrayref {
    require Encode;
    Encode::_utf8_on($$_) for map \(@$_), @{$_[0]};
    $_[0];
}

[download]

Makeshifts last the longest.

In reply to Re: Switching on internal UTF-8 flaq on DBI result from database by Aristotle
in thread Switching on internal UTF-8 flaq on DBI result from database by liz

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