The problem is that you are including the time taken to construct the original (anonymous) array.

Try this and see how you get on (the timings shown are AS 5.10.1 under Vista 64-bit):

#!/user/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Benchmark qw[ cmpthese ]; sub sum_copy { my @numbers = @_; my $sum = 0; foreach my $num (@numbers){ $sum += $num } $sum; } sub sum_ref { my ($numbers_ref) = @_; my $sum = 0; foreach my $num (@$numbers_ref){ $sum += $num }; $sum; } our $N //= 1e6; my @numbers = 1 .. $N; cmpthese -3, { copy => sub{ my $sum = sum_copy( @numbers ); }, ref => sub{ my $sum = sum_ref( \@numbers ); }, }; __END__ C:\test>junk28 -N=1e4 Rate copy ref copy 3.92/s -- -59% ref 9.67/s 146% -- C:\test>junk28 -N=1e5 Rate copy ref copy 3.95/s -- -59% ref 9.62/s 144% -- C:\test>junk28 -N=1e6 Rate copy ref copy 3.92/s -- -59% ref 9.66/s 146% --

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP an inspiration; A true Folk's Guy

In reply to Re: Curious Perl Behavior... by BrowserUk
in thread Curious Perl Behavior... by ack

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