Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of regex, unpack, xeger... regex: 6 wallclock secs ( 5.71 usr + 0.00 sys = 5.71 CPU) @ 175131.35/s (n=1000000) unpack: 7 wallclock secs ( 5.91 usr + 0.00 sys = 5.91 CPU) @ 169204.74/s (n=1000000) xeger: 9 wallclock secs ( 9.26 usr + 0.00 sys = 9.26 CPU) @ 107991.36/s (n=1000000)