R help - Jul 2010 - Fast String operations in R ? Cost of String operations

Hi experts,

currently developing some code that checks a large amount of Strings
for the existence of sub-strings and pattern (detecting sub-strings
within URLs). I wonder if there is information about how well
particular String operations work in R together with comparisons. Are
there  recommendations (based on such information) regarding what
operations should be used and what should be avoided? Are there
libraries and functions that provide optimized String operations for
such needs or is R simply not the right choice for that?

Best,
Ralf

>>>>> "RB" == Ralf B <ralf.bierig at gmail.com>
>>>>>     on Mon, 5 Jul 2010 02:33:13 -0400 writes:
    RB> Hi experts,
    RB> currently developing some code that checks a large amount of Strings
    RB> for the existence of sub-strings and pattern (detecting sub-strings
    RB> within URLs). I wonder if there is information about how well
    RB> particular String operations work in R together with comparisons. Are
    RB> there  recommendations (based on such information) regarding what
    RB> operations should be used and what should be avoided? Are there
    RB> libraries and functions that provide optimized String operations for
    RB> such needs or is R simply not the right choice for that?

Why not?
R itself is nowadays used to build R packages, the need for Perl
basically gone, so why do you assume that R's string operations
are not fast enough for your task at hand?

Please read and adhere to the posting guide,
see the footer of *every* R-help message, cited below...
((and then work, and may be then ask a more specific question))

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich