performance comparisions

[Jeff Costlow <j.costlow@f5.com>]

awhile ago on this list, someone remarked that you could do a seach like the following (perl syntax):

$mesg = $ldap->search(
	base   => "dn=uid=bard,dc=alberta,dc=ca",
	filter => "objectClass=*",
	scope  => "base" );

and I asked about the performance difference between that and this:
$mesg = $ldap->search(
	base   => "dc=alberta,dc=ca",
	filter => "uid=bard",
	scope  => "one" );


I didn't see any answers, and when I went to test it myself using OpenLDAP2.0.7, I couldn't ever get the first way to return values.  I am not using perl, but simple ldapsearch cmdlines and in my own code.
Is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks.