Added one more test case 
my %tests = (
   split    => q{ my @a = split //, $buf;             },
   regex    => q{ my @a = $buf =~ /./sg;              },
   unpack_C => q{ my @a = map chr, unpack 'C*', $buf; },
   unpack_a => q{ my @a = unpack '(a)*', $buf;        },
   rev_chop => q{ my @a = reverse map chop($buf), 1..length($buf); },
   chop => q{ my @a; $a[ $_ ] = chop $buffer for length($buffer) .. 0;
+ },
);

[download]
And result was 
            Rate rev_chop unpack_C    split    regex unpack_a     chop
rev_chop  17.6/s       --      -6%     -13%     -20%     -30%    -100%
unpack_C  18.7/s       6%       --      -7%     -15%     -25%    -100%
split     20.2/s      15%       8%       --      -8%     -20%    -100%
regex     22.0/s      25%      17%       9%       --     -13%    -100%
unpack_a  25.1/s      43%      34%      24%      14%       --    -100%
chop     68478/s  388556%  365714%  339175%  311691%  272542%       --

[download]
However I am yet to read "Benchmark" so someone please explain this output. :) UPDATE: Sorry! That was a silly mistake. Thanks almut.

In reply to Re^3: Convert string to array - performance challenge by samarzone
in thread Convert string to array - performance challenge by rtillian

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.