note
dchetlin
This is a good question. The answer is that the REx engine does <strong>not</strong> optimize <code>\d{2}</code> into <code>\d\d</code>.
<p>Here's how to check:
<p><code>
[~] $ perl -Mre=debug -e'qr/\d{2}/'
Freeing REx: `,'
Compiling REx `\d{2}'
size 4 first at 3
1: CURLY {2,2}(4)
3: DIGIT(0)
4: END(0)
stclass `DIGIT' minlen 2
Freeing REx: `\d{2}'
[~] $ perl -Mre=debug -e'qr/\d\d/'
Freeing REx: `,'
Compiling REx `\d\d'
size 3 first at 1
1: DIGIT(2)
2: DIGIT(3)
3: END(0)
stclass `DIGIT' minlen 2
Freeing REx: `\d\d'</code>
<p>Why doesn't it? I don't know. But as the Benchmarks above have noted, I can't imagine that difference being notable enough to really worry about.
<p>-dlc
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