I think yours is working a little harder than necessary. (Update: I didn't recognize the cache.) Also note that you ought to localize $_ if you're going to use it where Perl isn't automatically localizing it. 
for (10,15,20831323,99,100) {
  print "$_: ", nearPrime($_), "\n";
}

sub nearPrime {
    my $num = shift;
    local $_ = 0; # otherwise tries to modify for loop var above
    return $num if isPrime($num);
    while (1) {
        $_++;
        return ($num - $_) if isPrime($num - $_);
        return ($num + $_) if isPrime($num + $_);
    }
}

...

[download]
An alternative nearPrime sub: 
sub nearPrime {
    my $num = shift;
    my $sign = 1;
    return $num if isPrime($num);
    for (0..$num) {
        $num += $sign * $_;
        return $num if isPrime($num);
        $sign = -$sign;
    }
}

[download]
And this isPrime does a little less work by checking only odd numbers: 
BEGIN {
    my @primes = (2, 3); my $max = 3;
    sub isPrime {
        my $num = shift;
        my $root = int sqrt $num;
        while ($max <= $root) {
             $max += 2;
             push(@primes, $max) if isPrime($max);
        }
        for (@primes) {
            last if $_ > $root;
            return 0 if ($num % $_ == 0);
        }
        return 1;
    }
}

[download]
Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.

In reply to Re^2: a close prime number by Roy Johnson
in thread a close prime number by Anonymous Monk

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