How does temporary variables and scope affect performance or memory usage?

Temporary variables and scope in Perl can significantly affect performance and memory usage during the execution of your scripts. Understanding how to manage variable scope can lead to more efficient code and optimal memory use.

When you define variables with local scope, such as using `my` or `local`, they take up memory only within the block of code they are defined in. This helps reduce memory usage when those variables are not in use, especially in large scripts.

On the other hand, global variables could lead to increased memory consumption since they persist throughout the execution of the program. This can cause memory bloat if not managed properly, particularly in loops or subroutines that create many temporary variables without clearing them.

In general, using temporary variables wisely can improve the performance of your Perl scripts by reducing the memory footprint and improving execution speed.

# Example of using temporary variables in Perl
sub example {
    my $temp_var = 10; # local scope
    my $result = $temp_var * 2;
    return $result; # only $result will be used outside this subroutine
}

my $final_result = example();
print $final_result; # Output will be 20