> You probably need to execute each variant in a loop multiple times to > get meaningful results. > > Kind regards > > robert Thanks robert here are the results ran 100000 times for each approach require 'benchmark' iterations = 100000 Benchmark.bm do |bm| bm.report("Brian:") do iterations.times do expand_seq "t[ac][tc]aaattaag[ga]gaag[ac]ttggtgga" do |seq| # puts seq end end end bm.report("Jesus:") do iterations.times do /t[ac][tc]aaattaag[ga]gaag[ac]ttggtgga/.generate end end end user system total real Brian: 36.500000 2.080000 38.580000 ( 38.738666) Jesus: 217.180000 30.710000 247.890000 (248.848401) -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.