Wraps the Boost.Regex library to provide Boost regexes. Why? Why not! (Plus, it's worth seeing if it's faster.)
I'm trying to match the API to be at least completely compatible with normal Regexps, and then add Boost features. So far...
=~ operator, === operator (for case...when)#match method as in normal Regexps, returning the same type of object (MatchData).If you use Ruby's regexes, you probably use the handy-dandy global variables that come along with them, especially for quickly-written scripts. I'm talking about our buddies, $1, $2, $3, $\``, $&, $~`. This gem makes sure to set those variables so that these global variables still work.
So monkey patching is bad, right? Right. And rubyists monkey patch all the time, which makes us bad people. Well, this module adds a new, alternate regex, but Ruby has a syntax for regexes already:
This is nice because we don't have to escape the backslashes, plus it looks really nice with syntax highlighting. With these boost regexes, you'll either have to do
reg = Boost::Regexp.new("\\d{3}")
# or
reg = Boost::Regexp.new(/\d{3}/)
Why do all that typing? We have a literal regex syntax! But it creates normal regexes. So, we have a compromise:
Boost::Regexp.enable_monkey_patch! # only have to do this once
reg = /\d{3}/.boost!
reg.class # ==> Boost::Regexp
Cool, eh?
Of course, Boost gives us lots of crazy flags:
reg = /abc(def)/.boost!(Boost::Regexp::NO_SUBS & Boost::Regexp::IGNORECASE)
reg =~ "zzzABCDEF" # ==> 3
puts $1 # ==> nil
I adapted the ruby-benchmark-suite's bm_regex_dna benchmark, which is used in the Computer Language Shootout. However, it uses str.scan(), which will fail if confronted with a non-standard Regexp. So I had to write my own, which is less optimized. The benchmark code is free to be scrutinized! It uses the standard benchmark module because lifting the spiffy one from ruby-benchmark-suite proved to be too much of a hassle for now.
Anyway, here's some results. 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB 1067 Mhz DDR3, Macbook Pro. Ruby 1.8.7 (2008-08-11 patchlevel 72) [universal-darwin10.0]. Oniguruma is the Oniguruma gem for 1.8.x ruby, not the one bundled with Ruby 1.9+. I ran this a few times with differing loads, and they always roughly come out to the same result. YMMV.
DNA-Matching (Computer Language Shootout)
=========================================
Rehearsal ------------------------------------------------
Normal regex 17.240000 0.050000 17.290000 ( 17.353051)
Oniguruma 16.300000 0.030000 16.330000 ( 16.384928)
Boost regex 11.400000 0.040000 11.440000 ( 11.489252)
-------------------------------------- total: 45.060000sec
user system total real
Normal regex 17.190000 0.030000 17.220000 ( 17.273140)
Oniguruma 16.220000 0.040000 16.260000 ( 16.325460)
Boost regex 11.330000 0.030000 11.360000 ( 11.402222)
Failing to match a phone number in a big string of text
=======================================================
Rehearsal ------------------------------------------------
Normal regex 7.090000 0.160000 7.250000 ( 8.025125)
Oniguruma 4.270000 0.100000 4.370000 ( 4.831689)
Boost regex 3.450000 0.070000 3.520000 ( 3.959367)
-------------------------------------- total: 15.140000sec
user system total real
Normal regex 7.080000 0.130000 7.210000 ( 7.979815)
Oniguruma 4.230000 0.100000 4.330000 ( 4.772939)
Boost regex 3.400000 0.080000 3.480000 ( 3.846438)
Ruby 1.9 version:
DNA-Matching (Computer Language Shootout)
=========================================
Rehearsal --------------------------------------------------
1.9 Ruby regex 17.440000 0.030000 17.470000 ( 17.523726)
Boost regex 9.750000 0.010000 9.760000 ( 9.757300)
---------------------------------------- total: 27.230000sec
user system total real
1.9 Ruby regex 17.420000 0.020000 17.440000 ( 17.434514)
Boost regex 9.750000 0.010000 9.760000 ( 9.755085)
Failing to match a phone number in a big string of text
=======================================================
Rehearsal --------------------------------------------------
1.9 Ruby regex 15.650000 0.310000 15.960000 ( 16.069783)
Boost regex 38.230000 0.810000 39.040000 ( 40.099560)
---------------------------------------- total: 55.000000sec
user system total real
1.9 Ruby regex 15.640000 0.200000 15.840000 ( 16.079149)
Boost regex 37.950000 0.720000 38.670000 ( 39.023587)
Very interesting - 1.9 seems to have gotten faster at the "match a phone number in a big block of text" benchmark. Boost is even faster, though, and Oniguruma integrated with 1.9 is back at the old 1.9 speed. For some reason Boost is much slower at failed searches: this is definitely worth investigating. I'm hoping to add some kind of XML/HTML-matching benchmark (Yes, I know this is a bad idea). If you know how to benchmark regexps, feel free to fork away!
Install the gem, use as follows:
require 'ruby-boost-regex'
r = Boost::Regexp.new("(\\d{3})-(\\d{3})-(\\d{4})")
r =~ "555-123-4567"
p $1 # ==> "555"
matches = r.match("123-456-7890")
p matches[2] # ==> "456"
Boost::Regex.enable_monkey_patch!
r = /hello|world/i.boost!
r =~ "i'm Mike. Hello!" #==> 10
You're going to need Boost.Regex. You can find the Boost Project here, with a Getting Started page for installation.
Ruby-boost-regex expects you to have the boost regex library available as "libboost_regex.so" or "libboost_regex.dylib" or whatever your platform specifies - the key point is the name "boost_regex".
gem install ruby-boost-regex
For the Unicode support I'm trying to get in, you'll need IBM's ICU project installed, with the recommended download page you start from being ICU4C 4.4. In addition, your Boost libraries must be configured to use ICU.
Note on Patches/Pull RequestsCopyright (c) 2010 Michael Edgar. See LICENSE for details.
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