Re^2: alternation in regexes: to use or to avoid?

[dk]

Not really, because it says:

A complicated pattern tends to defeat this.

and i'm seeing exactly the opposite. I wish Tom would comment on that :) But thank you for the quote, it helps with understanding why I think that the observed behavior is bad.

[Anonymous Monk]

Perhaps read "complicated" as "non-trivial", EG: having alternations

[balker]

Please read the benchmark numbers.

Alternation is MUCH faster than looping over trivial regexes, except when you use captures inside the alternations.