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Regular Expressions at Their Best: A Case for Rational Design

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Implementation and Application of Automata (CIAA 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 6482))

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Abstract

Regular expressions are often an integral part of program customization and many algorithms have been proposed for transforming them into suitable data structures. These algorithms can be divided into two main classes: backtracking or automaton-based algorithms. Surprisingly, the latter class draws less attention than the former, even though automaton-based algorithms represent the oldest and by far the fastest solutions when carefully designed. Only two open-source automaton-based implementations stand out: PCRE and the recent RE2 from Google. We have developed, and present here, a competitive automaton-based regular expression engine on top of the LGPL C++ Automata Standard Template Library (ASTL), whose efficiency and scalability remain unmatched and which distinguishes itself through a unique and rigorous STL-like design.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Exalead SA, 10 place de la Madeleine, 75008, Paris, France

    Vincent Le Maout

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  1. Vincent Le Maout
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Michael Domaratzki

  2. School of Computing, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Kai Salomaa

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Le Maout, V. (2011). Regular Expressions at Their Best: A Case for Rational Design. In: Domaratzki, M., Salomaa, K. (eds) Implementation and Application of Automata. CIAA 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6482. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18098-9_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18098-9_33

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-18097-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18098-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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