Need simple algorithm for newbie

[Cameron Laird]

In article <R0ux9.69104$aL4.2127754 at news1.tin.it>,
Alex Martelli  <aleax at aleax.it> wrote:
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>as finding the second '.' from the right, RE's, and so on.  No
>matter how huge is your list, saveing (say) 10% of runtime is no
>big deal, and I don't think there can be much more than this in
>terms of optimization one way or another.  The right approach
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Please understand that Alex is *not* trivializing your
task when he writes, "no big deal", as all the accurate
and apposite details he appended should make apparent.
There are times for all of us when 10% is consequential.
He and I both have a fair amount of practical experience
dealing with hostnames and similar data.  I expect Alex
will agree with me in proposing that, if you truly have
a situation where a savings of 10% in performance of the
transformation you describe is valuable to you, we pro-
bably can save you *much* more with a slightly deeper
understanding of the underlying applicaton-level require-
ments.
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html