#!/usr/bin/perl

 use strict;
 use warnings;

 use Benchmark qw(:all);


 sub caller_scalar
 {
     my $s = stub_scalar();
 }

 sub caller_ref
 {
     my $s = stub_ref();
 }


 sub stub_scalar
 {
     my $string = 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' x 1000000;
     return $string
 }

 sub stub_ref
 {
     my $string = 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa' x 1000000;
     return \$string
 }

 cmpthese(
     1000,
     {
         'ref'  => \&caller_ref,
         'scalar' => \&caller_scalar,
     }
 );

##</code><code>##

         Rate scalar    ref
scalar 10.9/s     --   -20%
ref    13.5/s    24%     --