Surely all this depends on how much white space you're typically expecting. Could the following not also be more efficent depending on the data: 
if ($blah=~m/^\s/) {
    $blah=~s/^\s+//;
}

[download]
or indeed (thanks to MZSanford for this one): 
if (index($blah," ")) == 0 {
    $blah=~s/^\s+//;
}

[download]
and for trailing - use rindex :).


UPDATE: Oops - The index solution only works for *actual* spaces (thanks Hofmator).

That possibly gets you a little closer to the best of both worlds?
game(Wookie,opponent) eq 'Wookie' ? undef $problem : remove_limbs(arms,opponent);

In reply to Re: japhy blabs about regexes (again) by Wookie
in thread japhy blabs about regexes (again) by japhy

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