Attempts to check how efficient multiple strpos checks are relative to the same number of PCRE function checks. String length has a significant impact on finding a string with a regular expression pattern. You can specify how long the string is via an argument to the script. `strpos` is always faster; period. It takes the same amount of time eve…

results.md

$ php strposvsstriposvspregbench.php 1
0.40396499633789
0.58028793334961
0.93481206893921
0.91582679748535

$ php strposvsstriposvspregbench.php 100
0.42313885688782
0.50706505775452
4.8115060329437
4.7086510658264

strpos_vs_regex_bench.php

<?php
$char = str_repeat(' ', $argv[1]) . '_';

$time = microtime(true);

for ($_ = 0; $_ < 1000000; $_++) {
   strpos('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890-_', $char);
}

echo microtime(true) - $time . "\n";

$time = microtime(true);

for ($_ = 0; $_ < 1000000; $_++) {
   stripos('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890-_', $char);
}

echo microtime(true) - $time . "\n";

$time = microtime(true);

for ($_ = 0; $_ < 1000000; $_++) {
   preg_match('/[a-zA-Z0-9-_]/', $char);
}

echo microtime(true) - $time . "\n";

$time = microtime(true);

for ($_ = 0; $_ < 1000000; $_++) {
   preg_match('/[a-z0-9-_]/i', $char);
}

echo microtime(true) - $time . "\n";
?>