Hi, c r <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asked: > I need to match an expression and its reverse to a very long string. > When a match occurs all matching should stop and the position > of the match should be returned.
Could you please illustrate this with an example or two? Unless you specify the /g modifier, the RE engine stops at the first match. Use the pos function to find the position of the match. > Question1: can I match the forward and reverse expression to > the string on the same time and thereby save half the time it > normally would take to find a match or does the matching just > get slower? Well, you'd have to merge your expressions somehow - the easiest way would be to try and match /expr-a|expr-b/ but then I suspect that for all but simple cases two separate matches would be faster. > Question2: is the "fork" function what I should use in order > to match a string with multiple expressions simultaneously? Well, there is a certain overhead involved in keeping your processes synchronized that would only be outweighed if you had a multi CPU machine where both processes could run at once in the first place. Even then it's a hassle. If I were you I'd focus my energy in optimizing the expression. If you're going to match many long strings with the same RE, you could use the /o modifier to benefit. Also, you could try wether a study() of the input strings speeds things up. HTH, Thomas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>