As I understand it using multiple regexs to evalute one string is less efficient then one.

Well, it would be comparing multiple simple regexes that won't backtrack versus a single more complex one that will often backtrack. So, while it might be less efficient, it won't be as bad as you think it is. Besides, do you really have to worry about this? Are you doing the parsing in a thight loop? Did you benchmark the two alternatives? You didn't show the code of both ways, did you actually try them? Is the rest of your program finished and peephole optimizations are now being called for?

Abigail