You have a bunch of constructs in grid_check() like this: 
    # For each possible value of the target -- 
    # remember to invert the sense of the search
    foreach $val (grep{!$list[$_]}1..9) {
      $grid[$cntr] = $val;
      grid_check();
    }

[download]
Where it looks like @list (and a whole lot more stuff) is created by each call to grid_check(). Generally, you want recursive functions to pass arguments. (I can't even see if that code would *ever* stop calling itself since I can't see what the stop conditions are).

update: just to address your question: perl's subroutine calls aren't exactly the quickest and I wouldn't be surprised if they'd be a lot (maybe even 10 times, if the Java VM can do some good hot spot optimization) slower than Java's, but even considering that, it seems obvious to me that what's really causing a significant slowness is not the function call overhead, so it's probably your algorithm.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re: Subroutine overhead in Perl by Joost
in thread Subroutine overhead in Perl by enemyofthestate

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.