progs/catastrophic/catastrophic.java
author Christian Urban <christian.urban@kcl.ac.uk>
Mon, 25 Sep 2023 15:12:11 +0100
changeset 929 9541e073f2ed
parent 741 e66bd5c563eb
permissions -rw-r--r--
updated

// A case of catastrophic backtracking in Java 8
//-----------------------------------------------
//
// regexp: (a*)*b
// strings: aa....
//
// compile:    javac catastrophic.java
// call with:  java catastrophic
//
// IMPORTANT: 
// Java 9 improved its regex matching engine.
// This example is now much faster.
//

import java.util.regex.*;

public class catastrophic {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
	
        //we always run all the tests twice -> to warmup of the JVM
        for (int runs = 0; runs < 2; runs++) {
            
            Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile("(a*)*b");
            
            // Run from 5 to 28 characters
            for (int length = 5; length < 28; length++) {
                
                // Build input of specified length
                String input = "";
                for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) { input += "a"; }
                
                // Measure the average duration of two calls...  
                long start = System.nanoTime();
                for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
                    pattern.matcher(input).find();
                }

                // Print out time
                System.out.println(length + " " + input + ": " 
                       + ((System.nanoTime() - start) / 2000000000d) 
                       + "s");
            }
        }
    }
}