Visual Basic 2008 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach

2.6. Use Compiled Regular Expressions

Problem

You need to minimize the impact on application performance that arises from using complex regular expressions frequently.

Solution

When you instantiate the System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex object that represents your regular expression, specify the Compiled option of the System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions enumeration to compile the regular expression to Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL).

How It Works

By default, when you create a Regex object, the regular expression pattern you specify in the constructor is compiled to an intermediate form (not MSIL). Each time you use the Regex object, the runtime interprets the pattern's intermediate form and applies it to the target string. With ...