Benchmark: timing 500000 iterations of regexp, substr... regexp: 11 wallclock secs (10.16 usr + 0.00 sys = 10.16 CPU) @ 49236.83/s (n=500000) substr: 1 wallclock secs ( 0.90 usr + 0.00 sys = 0.90 CPU) @ 554938.96/s (n=500000)