use strict;
use Benchmark;

my $index;
my $str = "lol238923892382938|lol282812|asdfasdf|asdfasdfasdf";

timethese(5000000, {
    'stopper'   => sub { ($index) = $str =~ m/([^|]+)/ },
    'lookahead' => sub { ($index) = $str =~ m/^(.+?)(?=\|)/ },
    'splitter'  => sub { ($index) = split /\|/, $str },
});