Is returning a whole array from a Perl subroutine inefficient?

Question

I often have a subroutine in Perl that fills an array with some information. Since I\'m also used to hacking in C++, I find myself often do it like this in Perl, using refer

Answer 1

3 other potentially LARGE performance improvements if you are reading an entire, largish file and slicing it into an array:

1. Turn off BUFFERING with sysread() instead of read() (manual warns about mixing)
   
2. Pre-extend the array by valuing the last element - saves memory allocations
3. Use Unpack() to swiftly split data like uint16_t graphics channel data

Passing an array ref to the function allows the main program to deal with a simple array while the write-once-and-forget worker function uses the more complicated "$@" and arrow ->[$II] access forms. Being quite C'ish, it is likely to be fast!