

Benchmark of Regex Libraries (2010) - druml
http://lh3lh3.users.sourceforge.net/reb.shtml

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karavelov
This is benchmarking Perl-5.8 that was already 3 years old in 2010. With
Perl-5.10 there is an optimization for matching alternations (|) that should
drastically change the results for the "URI|Email" pattern.

In later versions of Perl (the last stable is 5.20) there are more
optimizations in the RE engine and better Unicode support.

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kbenson
Firstly, at the end it says "Last modified: 2010-07-21"

Secondly, there's a lot more to regex engines than the paltry features listed
here. It's important to look at more complex features and if they are
supported and how they perform. Many engines will have multiple regex
implementations, some optimized for fewer features, and swap in the best
engine for the task at hand. Others will just forego more complex features for
a speedy implementation.

This matters. For a regex heavy project, if you choose an system that turns
out to be fast but doesn't support a needed later feature, it can be a
problem.

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fny
This brings to mind the fantastic "Regular Expression Matching can be Simple
and Fast"[0] article.

[0]:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20150315004427/http://swtch.com/~...](http://web.archive.org/web/20150315004427/http://swtch.com/~rsc/regexp/regexp1.html)

