Actually, davorg didn't miss the point. What he did was answer your question. If the specs are not clear, the answers won't be, either.

To get a better answer to your question, post to Seekers of Perl Wisdom. Include some sample code, sample lines from the file, and some of the regexes.

If your concern is speed, you'll need to learn about regex optimization. If you are iterating over lines in a file and iterating over hundreds of regexes, you may wish to reconsider how you are processing your data if speed is a consideration. Heck, if your data isn't clean and you have just one bad regex, your program may never finish running. For an example of some of the problems involved with regex optimization, read Death to Dot Star!.

Restating your problem and asking for optimization advice may help.

Er... the keys function, I expect.

You missed the point. What is the fastest way to test 100's of regex expressions against every line in a file? Here is what I've come up with:

# map REGEXs over line
72.328 user, 0.108 sys, 1:24.18 real, 86.0% cpu
0k text, 0k data+stack, 0k avg, 0k max
36 in, 3 out, 0 faults, 325 reclaims, 0 swaps

# eval preformed REGEXs over line
196.128 user, 0.093 sys, 3:47.98 real, 86.0% cpu
0k text, 0k data+stack, 0k avg, 0k max
43 in, 3 out, 0 faults, 358 reclaims, 0 swaps
 
# eval over preconstructed function
1.742 user, 0.030 sys, 0:02.00 real, 88.5% cpu
0k text, 0k data+stack, 0k avg, 0k max
19 in, 1 out, 0 faults, 329 reclaims, 0 swaps
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