Benchmark: running regex, substring for at least 2 CPU seconds... regex: 4 wallclock secs ( 2.72 usr + 0.01 sys = 2.73 CPU) @ 740317.95/s (n=2021068) substring: 2 wallclock secs ( 2.66 usr + 0.02 sys = 2.68 CPU) @ 17332.84/s (n=46452) Rate substring regex substring 17333/s -- -98% regex 740318/s 4171% --