selecting <option> with preg_replace vs loop - which is better?

[zorro]

and does testing merely mean running it 100 000 times and clocking it?
// using preg_replace :

$s = '
<select name="color">
<option value="">choose
<option value="red">red
<option value="green">green
<option value="blue">blue
<option value="yellow">yellow
</select>';

if($_POST)
{ $c=$_POST['color'];
$s=preg_replace('/(value="'.$c.'")/','$1 selected',$s);
}

echo $s;
// using loop :

$colors=array('red','green','blue','yellow');

echo '<select name="color">';
echo '<option value="">choose';
foreach($colors as $c){
echo '<option value="'.$c.'"';
if($_POST['color']==$c)
echo ' selected';
echo '>'.$c;
}

echo '</select>';

[Rik]

zorro wrote:

and does testing merely mean running it 100 000 times and clocking it?

You could, it would give you some valuable information. 100 000 is a bit
much though.

Rule of thumb: regexes are slow, don't use them if other simple code can do
the job as easily and dynamically.

Grtz,
--
Rik Wasmus