#!C:/perl/bin -w
use strict;

# regextiming.pl

use vars qw( $string $ms $ms2 );

$string = "fred and barney went bowling last night";

{
$ms = Win32::GetTickCount();

   if ( $string =~ /fred.+barney/) {
   } else {
      print "No match\n\n";
   }
print "This match used ",Win32::GetTickCount() - $ms, " ticks on a w2k box\n\n";
}

# alt --OP expects this to be quicker

{
$ms2 = Win32::GetTickCount();

   if ( $string =~ /fred.+?barney/) {
   } else {
      print "No match via second refex\n\n";
      exit();
   }
print "The non-greedy match used ",Win32::GetTickCount() - $ms2, " ticks on a w2k box.\n";
}