Precompiled regular expressions slower?

[Sean 'Shaleh' Perry]

> 
> The times of the following three tests are:
> 1.94322395325   # search(string, string)
> 2.62431204319   # search(re_obj, string)
> 0.667925000191  # re_obj.search(string)
> 
> Someone care to explain why the second ends up slower than the first?
> 

 1 def _compile(*key):
 2    # internal: compile pattern
 3    p = _cache.get(key)
 4    if p is not None:
 5        return p
 6    pattern, flags = key
 7    if type(pattern) not in sre_compile.STRING_TYPES:
 8        return pattern
 9    try:
10        p = sre_compile.compile(pattern, flags)
11    except error, v:
12        raise error, v # invalid expression
13    if len(_cache) >= _MAXCACHE:
14        _cache.clear()
15    _cache[key] = p
16    return p

My guess is #2 is slower because of the if type() check on line 7.