Which is more efficient, PHP string functions or regex in PHP?

Question

I\'m writing PHP code to parse a string. It needs to be as fast as possible, so are regular expressions the way to go? I have a hunch that PHP string functions are more expe

Answer 1

Depends on your needs. Most regular expression operations are faster than one would think and can even outperform builtin string functions in certain trivial operations. Note that I have the preg library in mind, not the builtin regex library, which is quite slow.