From: Robin Stocker <robin@...>
Date: 2006-07-09T04:23:38+09:00
Subject: Re: String#starts_with?

Marcin Miel��y��ski wrote:
> String#index should be the fastest

I'm afraid it isn't suitable for this case. String#index searches the 
whole string when the string doesn't start with the start, which is very 
bad.

Use String#[] or a regular expression:

   text = "this is a test"
   search = "this"
   text[0, search.length] == search  #=> true

   text =~ /^this/                   #=> 0 (true)
   text =~ /^test/                   #=> nil (false)

Cheers,
   Robin Stocker