Comparing perl and python

[Nathaniel Gray]

If regexes are your concern, you may not need to worry much longer.  The
regular expression engine for Python 1.6 should be significantly faster
than the current one.

Here are some benchmarks that Fredrik Lundh posted to c.l.p. last month:

           0     5    50   250  1000  5000 25000
 ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
 search for Python|Perl in Perl ->
 sre8  0.007 0.008 0.010 0.010 0.020 0.073 0.349
 sre16 0.007 0.007 0.008 0.010 0.020 0.075 0.353
 re    0.097 0.097 0.101 0.103 0.118 0.175 0.480
 regex 0.007 0.007 0.009 0.020 0.059 0.271 1.320
  
 search for (Python|Perl) in Perl ->
 sre8  0.007 0.007 0.007 0.010 0.020 0.074 0.344
 sre16 0.007 0.007 0.008 0.010 0.020 0.074 0.347
 re    0.110 0.104 0.111 0.115 0.125 0.184 0.559
 regex 0.006 0.006 0.009 0.019 0.057 0.285 1.432
  
 search for Python in Python ->
 sre8  0.007 0.007 0.007 0.011 0.021 0.072 0.387
 sre16 0.007 0.007 0.008 0.010 0.022 0.082 0.365
 re    0.107 0.097 0.105 0.102 0.118 0.175 0.511
 regex 0.009 0.008 0.010 0.018 0.036 0.139 0.708
  
 search for .*Python in Python ->
 sre8  0.008 0.007 0.008 0.011 0.021 0.079 0.379
 sre16 0.008 0.008 0.008 0.011 0.022 0.075 0.402
 re    0.102 0.108 0.119 0.183 0.400 1.545 7.284
 regex 0.013 0.019 0.072 0.318 1.231 8.035 45.366
  
 search for .*Python.* in Python ->
 sre8  0.008 0.008 0.008 0.011 0.021 0.080 0.383
 sre16 0.008 0.008 0.008 0.011 0.021 0.079 0.395
 re    0.103 0.108 0.119 0.184 0.418 1.685 8.378
 regex 0.013 0.020 0.073 0.326 1.264 9.961 46.511
  
 search for .*(Python) in Python ->
 sre8  0.007 0.008 0.008 0.011 0.021 0.077 0.378
 sre16 0.007 0.008 0.008 0.011 0.021 0.077 0.444
 re    0.108 0.107 0.134 0.240 0.637 2.765 13.395
 regex 0.026 0.112 3.820 87.322 ...
  
 search for .*P.*y.*t.*h.*o.*n.* in Python ->
 sre8  0.010 0.010 0.014 0.031 0.093 0.419 2.212
 sre16 0.010 0.011 0.014 0.030 0.093 0.419 2.292
 re    0.112 0.121 0.195 0.521 1.747 8.298 40.877
 regex 0.026 0.048 0.248 1.148 4.550 24.720 ...
  
 (searching for the given patterns in strings padded
 with blanks on both sides.  sre8 is the new python
 1.6 engine on 8-bit strings, sre16 is the same engine
 using unicode)

-- 
Nathaniel A. Gray
--
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"No, no, you're all confused.  The horizon is moving up."
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