If you don't recreate the dispatch table upon every invocation of dispatch() by placing it outside of the routine, the difference already is much smaller: 

            Rate dispatch    elsif
dispatch  9363/s       --     -12%
elsif    10627/s      13%       --

[download]

even though in that case, there's still a disadvantage on the side of the dispatch table, because the $y needs to be passed to the anonymous sub... 

my %dispatch=(
    A=>sub { split(/!/,$_[0]); },
    ...
);

sub dispatch {
   my $x=$letters[random($nLetters)];
   my $y='xyzzy!' x random(1000);
   if (exists $dispatch{$x}) {
      $dispatch{$x}->($y);
   } else {
      warn "Huh?";
   }
}

[download]

In reply to Re: elsif chain vs. dispatch by almut
in thread elsif chain vs. dispatch by sflitman

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