From: Daniel DeLorme <dan-ml@...42.com>
Date: 2007-08-12T22:27:55+09:00
Subject: Re: first and last char

Stefan Rusterholz wrote:
> Daniel DeLorme wrote:
>> def first; self[/\A./m]; end
>> def last; self[/.\z/m]; end
>>
>>  >> $KCODE='u'
>> => "u"
>>  >> "日本語".first
>> => "日"
>>  >> "日本語".last
>> => "語"
>>
>> Daniel
> 
> You are right, your solution is better.

Only partly. Unfortunately, end-anchored regular expressions have pretty 
abysmal performance.

 >> require "benchmark"
 >> str = "日本語"*1000
 >> Benchmark.measure{10000.times{str.first}}.real
=> 0.0704410076141357
 >> Benchmark.measure{10000.times{str.last}}.real
=> 5.35788202285767

:-(
Daniel