I suggest to check out http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/navarro01fast.html
The presented BNDM algorithm is one of the fastest string searching algorithm while being easy to implement. Its main loop is faster than the naive str_replace implementation(*). Check out a C test implementation: http://www.mail-archive.com/dev@httpd.apache.org/msg00939.html The above paper also discusses extending the algorithm to cover character classes (case insensitivity). (*) I had incorporated it into PHP, if I had found a way to nicely offset the compilation step. This proved to be the major obstacle for small sets. - Sascha -- PHP Development Mailing List <http://www.php.net/> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php