This is an observation for the public record, more than it is a question. The speed of returning pointers to arrays in 5.10.0 is much faster than the speed of returning arrays: 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $arraylength=1000;

sub return_arrays {
  my @array;
  for (my $i=0; $i<$arraylength; ++$i) { push(@array, rand()); }
  return @array;  ## or return \@array;
}

my $now=time();
my $sum=0;
for (my $j=0; $j<100_000; ++$j) {
  my @v= return_arrays();  ## or my $v=
  $sum+= $v[ rand($arraylength) ];  ## of $v->[
}
print "$sum\n";
print "Time: ".(time()-$now)." seconds\n";

[download]
on a Mac Pro, the array version takes 63 seconds. the reference version takes 22 seconds.

my guess is that perl actually copies the array on a return, rather than just move pointers around. this seems somewhat inefficient.

In reply to Speed of Array Returns by Anonymous Monk

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