Hi, This isn't boost-specific but the list seems reasonably tolerant of off-topic posts and it does relate to the regex features. To cut to the chase, my question is , " does boost implement anything that may help in searching an array of strings for particular types of patterns?" As I indicated earlier, I'm doing sequence alignments between many long strings ( 5-50 strings, 10k-5M chars long, either DNA or proteins) ( to make this post informative for others that may be interested in algorithms, see things like this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22sequence+alignment%22+site%3Aciteseer.ist.psu.edu&btnG=Search ) Anyway, manually sorting through 5Meg string arrays is a bit tedious but I wanted to know if there are particular ways of describing queries that may be similar to but faster than regex ( "show me everyplace in this string alignment where 4 of the 5 characters are identical, but only where 5 or more characters meet this criterion?") If you look at this ornately colored html, you can get some idea of what the data look like: http://www.spottext.com/marchywka/some_dog_prosites.html Besides queries on the character content, I'd be looking for similar patterns in the "rules" locations( "show me every sequence where 4 of the 5 things match rule 234") Ultimately, once I have some idea what is going on and have ad hoc tools for debugging, I'd like to make an automated system and can write specialized code but a general query system is great for survey and debug. Thanks. Mike Marchywka 586 Saint James Walk Marietta GA 30067-7165 404-788-1216 (C)<- leave message 989-348-4796 (P)<- emergency only marchywka@hotmail.com Note: Hotmail is blocking my mom's entire ISP claiming it is to reduce spam but probably to force users to use hotmail. Please DON'T assume I am ignoring you and try me on marchywka@yahoo.com if no reply here. Thanks. _________________________________________________________________ Don't get caught with egg on your face. Play Chicktionary! http://club.live.com/chicktionary.aspx?icid=chick_wlhmtextlink1_dec