What's faster: Regex or string operations?

Question

When should I use Regex over string operations and vice versa only regarding performance?

Answer 1

It depends

Although string manipulation will usually be somewhat faster, the actual performance heavily depends on a number of factors, including:

• How many times you parse the regex
• How cleverly you write your string code
• Whether the regex is precompiled

As the regex gets more complicated, it will take much more effort and complexity to write equivalent string manipulation code that performs well.