This is mostly a methodologic question.

The use of different variables for different things is preferred as when someone reads/debugs your code it is clear that the different instances relate to different data.
All compilers nowadays (including perl, according to the excellent explenation here) define the scope of the variable, so the "dangling" variables get cleared away as soon as they are done.

An exception for this is objects that require expensive setup (like ftp connection for example). In these cases it makes more sense, from optimization point of view, to reuse these resources.

Sorry for not giving actual timing data, maybe someone will benchmark it.

In reply to Re: Using a Variable Mutipule times(with different data) by fundflow
in thread Using a Variable Mutipule times(with different data) by Keef

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.