Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters?

BrowserUk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 12:46 UTC
Looking for blocks of the same char speeds it up a bit: `$s = join'', map{ chr( 65+rand(26) ) x rand( 100 ) } 1 .. 1000;; cmpthese( -1,{ a=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m[((?=(.))\2+)]g; ], b=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m[((?=(.))\2+)]sg; ] , c=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m/((.)\2)/sg; ], d=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m{ ( (?=(.)) (?: (\2\2\2\2\2\2\2\2) \3 \| (\2\2\2\2) \4* \| (\2\2) \5* \| \2+ )+ ) }sgx; ], }); Rate b a c d b 193/s -- -0% -3% -35% a 194/s 0% -- -2% -35% c 198/s 3% 2% -- -33% d 296/s 54% 53% 50% --` [download] Dave.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 14:01 UTC
Never would have thought of that! It yeilds another nice chunk of savings in the real application: `C:\test>\perl22\bin\perl 1176081.pl -WIDTH=1000 -HEIGHT=1000 yr() took 2.551594 buk() took 1.068262 buk2() took 0.681494 buk3() took 0.167000 dave() took 0.127978` [download] Thanks. On a related note: Any ideas why this: `while( substr( $$str, $y * $WIDTH, $WIDTH ) =~ m[((.)\2)]mg ) { ...` [download] Works (runs to completion, produces the desired results) on 5.10.1, but silently loops forever in 5.22.0? This works in 5.22.0: `my $ref = \substr( $$str, $y $WIDTH, $WIDTH ); while( $$ref =~ m[((.)\2*)]mg ) {` [download] With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The enemy of (IT) success is complexity. In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 14:16 UTC
On a related note: Any ideas why this: `while( substr( $$str, $y * $WIDTH, $WIDTH ) =~ m[((.)\2*)]mg ) { ...` [download] Works (runs to completion, produces the desired results) on 5.10.1, but silently loops forever in 5.22.0? Looks like a bug fix. expr =~ /.../g attaches position magic to the LHS after each match, to record the current pos() for that expression. If expr is a var or similar this works well; if expr returns something new each time, the old pos magic gets lost. This similarly loops forever: `sub f { "abc" } 1 while f() =~ /./g;` [download] Dave.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 13:27 UTC
Depending on how you want to use the information this may help: use Benchmark qw( cmpthese ); $s = join'', map{ chr( 65+rand(26) ) x rand( 100 ) } 1 .. 1000;; push @first, $1 while $s =~ /((.)\2)/gs; $s2 = " $s" ^ $s; # XORing the string with a shifted copy of itself, s +o that you have a series of 0s for identical characters push @second, $1 while $s2 =~ /(.\o{0})/gs; $\ = $/ x 2; print pack "(A4)", map length, @first; print pack "(A4)", map length, @second; cmpthese -1,{ a=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m[((?=(.))\2+)]g; ], b=>q[ 1 while $s =~ m[((.)\2)]sg; ] , c=>q[$s3 = " $s" ^ $s;; 1 while $s3 =~ /(.\o{0})/gs], };; [download] This first prints the length of the strings found by the two methods (I have removed most of the lines, which don't add any more information): `55 97 65 7 87 60 53 98 2 71 35 68 67 58 12 19 17 22 + 5 28 63 96 30 18 32 6 37 27 47 68 79 97 2 9 60 + 75 87 31 15 82 62 78 33 69 10 35 4 82 61 33 63 82 +96 68 140 88 59 67 87 78 98 14 3 6 52 59 74 86 79 49 44 28 76 + 25 83 99 66 42 67 73 3 46 55 97 65 7 87 60 53 98 2 71 35 68 67 58 12 19 17 22 + 5 28 63 96 30 18 32 6 37 27 47 68 79 97 2 9 60 + 75 87 31 15 82 62 78 33 69 10 35 4 82 61 33 63 82 +96 68 140 88 59 67 87 78 98 14 3 6 52 59 74 86 79 49 44 28 76 + 25 83 99 66 42 67 73 3 46 1` [download] So the second method does give the correct length (plus an extra character because of the shift). And the benchmark is much faster: `Rate a b c a 445/s -- -4% -80% b 465/s 5% -- -79% c 2228/s 401% 379% --` [download] It does not provide all the information of other methods directly (you still have to get a character in the original string to know what a substring exactly is), but might be useful depending on what you actually need.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 14:03 UTC
That's a nice piece of lateral thinking. I'll have to see if I can find a way of using it without throwing away those significant gains getting the other required info back. Watch this space... With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The enemy of (IT) success is complexity. In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]
Re^3: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 14:50 UTC
Well if instead of the length of the strings you save the pos, getting the information from the first string is straightforward (and O(1) if you only need one character). It removes the need to copy the substrings altogether, since you can access them directly in the input string. It does look like you still get a significant gain when copying all the substrings into the array: cmpthese -1,{ a_copy=>q[ @array = (); push @array, "$1" while $s =~ m[((.)\2)]sg; ] , a_pos=>q[ @array = (); push @array, pos() while $s =~ m[(.)\1]sg; ] , b_cow=>q[ # There might be a COW mechanism because of the call to +substr @array = (); $s3 = " $s" ^ $s;; push @array, substr($s, pos(), length + $1) while $s3 =~ /(.\o{0})/gs ], b_copy=>q[ # Force copy, to avoid delayed penalty of COW @array = (); $s3 = " $s" ^ $s;; push @array, "".substr($s, pos(), l +ength $1) while $s3 =~ /(.\o{0})/gs ], b_pos=>q[ @array = (); $s3 = " $s" ^ $s;; push @array, pos() while $s3 =~ /.\o{ +0}*/gs ], };; __DATA__ Rate a_copy a_pos b_copy b_cow b_pos a_copy 383/s -- -20% -49% -61% -80% a_pos 478/s 25% -- -36% -51% -75% b_copy 747/s 95% 56% -- -23% -60% b_cow 971/s 154% 103% 30% -- -49% b_pos 1888/s 393% 295% 153% 94% -- [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 23:09 UTC
Re^5: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by vr (Curate) on Nov 22, 2016 at 14:14 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 10:26 UTC
If you want to match all 256 byte values, you'll need the /s modifier. I thought this would just be more correct, but it also happen to be slightly faster (4% on my computer), certainly because it's faster to match anything rather than check that the character is different from "\n". Beside that, why are you using look-ahead assertions? Isn't `/((.)\2+)/g` stricly identical to your regex? I don't see a performance difference with that though, so maybe perl optimizes away the look-ahead.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 10:43 UTC
If you want to match all 256 byte values, you'll need the /s modifier. Yes. /s not /m; I always mix those two up. why are you using look-ahead assertions? Isn't /((.)\2+)/g stricly identical to your regex? No. That won't match a single character 'run'. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The enemy of (IT) success is complexity. In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]
Re^3: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by Eily (Monsignor) on Nov 21, 2016 at 10:50 UTC
No. That won't match a single character 'run'. Right. `/((.)\2*)/g` does though, and this time it is faster (by 12% on my computer).	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 11:31 UTC
Re: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by Anonymous Monk on Nov 21, 2016 at 12:04 UTC
So some kind of run-length encoding? Maybe use existing fast C code?	[reply]
Re^2: Faster regex to split a string into runs of similar characters? by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Nov 21, 2016 at 12:25 UTC
So some kind of run-length encoding? No. It relates to this problem. With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday' Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error. "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority". The enemy of (IT) success is complexity. In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.	[reply]


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