You can even save one more large, expensive copy operation by returning a reference to the scalar 'content' in the first place rather than the actual content (if you have editorial control over these functions) and just pass around the scalar reference thereafter. In the example below, the only copy performed is the absolutely necessary one (if you do not want to change the original content) associated with the first processing operation. (Update: Of course, you still have to come to terms with all the copying that goes on in all those  s/// operations, which may make the higher-level question moot.) 

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $article = { content => 'FEE FIE FOE FUM' };
 ;;
 print qq{'$article->{content}'};
 my $sr = process_content($article);
 print qq{'$$sr'};
 process_content_some_more($sr);
 print qq{'$$sr'};
 ;;
 sub process_content {
   my ($hashref) = @_;
   (my $processed = $hashref->{content}) =~ s{(\w+)}{\L$1}xmsg;
   return \$processed;
   }
 ;;
 sub process_content_some_more {
   my ($scalarref) = @_;
   $$scalarref =~ s{(\w+)}{\u$1}xmsg;
   }
"
'FEE FIE FOE FUM'
'fee fie foe fum'
'Fee Fie Foe Fum'

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In reply to Re^3: Way to do a "scalar ref"? by AnomalousMonk
in thread Way to do a "scalar ref"? by ultranerds

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