Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of split, substr... split: 8 wallclock secs ( 6.93 usr + 0.00 sys = 6.93 CPU) @ 144279.32/s(n=1000000) substr: 1 wallclock secs ( 1.54 usr + 0.00 sys = 1.54 CPU) @ 648088.14/s(n=1000000)