Re: [FWP] Finding the length of the longest string

["Michael Budash" <mbudash@sonic.net>]

>> From: Andy Jacobs [mailto:andyj@microsoft.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 23, 1999 19:00
>> To: 'Larry Rosler'; 'fwp@technofile.org'
>> Subject: RE: [FWP] Finding the length of the longest string
>>
>> This would probably be MUCH slower... but it's kind of
>> compact and fun.
>>
>> (sort map {length} @data)[-1];
>
> It would be more fun if it sorted the lengths by their values instead of
> lexicographically.  Here's an unusual (but faster!) way of doing that:
>
>   $len = unpack 'n' =>
>      (sort map pack('n' => length) => @data)[-1];
>
> I think those fancy commas are so expressive!
>

[snip benchmarks]

>
> Question:  Why is [this sort] faster ... ?
>
> For the definitive answer, see the paper that Uri Gellman and I are
> giving at te Perl Conference.
> <URL:http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Larry_Rosler/sorting.html>

damn fine work, larry. adjectively deserving of "elegant" ...
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