Question

Not really getting the point of the map function. Can anyone explain with examples its use?

Are there any performance benefits to using this instead of a loop or is it just sugar?

Answer 1

Any time you want to generate a list based another list:

# Double all elements of a list my @double = map { $_ * 2 } (1,2,3,4,5); # @double = (2,4,6,8,10); 

Since lists are easily converted pairwise into hashes, if you want a hash table for objects based on a particular attribute:

# @user_objects is a list of objects having a unique_id() method my %users = map { $_->unique_id() => $_ } @user_objects; # %users = ( $id => $obj, $id => $obj, ...); 

It’s a really general purpose tool, you have to just start using it to find good uses in your applications.

Some might prefer verbose looping code for readability purposes, but personally, I find map more readable.