Lindrian I would love to know how or why that regex is "so wrong in so many ways".

Edit: BTW the regex is much more efficient then using a while loop.

alias charcheck { var %c $chr($2) | return $regsubex($1,/(?<= |^)([^ $+ %c $+ ][^ ]*)(?= |$)/g,%c $+ \1) }

alias charcheck1 {
  var %t 1
  while (%t <= $numtok($1,32)) {
    var %front, %frontend = $instok(%frontend,$iif($left($gettok($1,%t,32),1) != $chr($2),$+($chr($2),$gettok($1,%t,32)),$gettok($1,%t,32)),0,32)
    inc %t
  }
  return %frontend
}

alias ctest {
  var %t = $ticks, %x = 100
  while (%x) {
    noop $charcheck(tehis #is a #test asd asd a #as asd # asd # asd ## a as a a aa sd a asd a asd a asd as asd asd asd asd asd as asd as dasd asd asdasd # asd a # asd # asda a # asd #asd as #a #asd #asda #reasa #adsaa #asd #asdae as asd a sdas asd as asd asd asd ad  ,35)
    dec %x
  }
  echo -b Regex Time: $calc($ticks - %t)
  var %t = $ticks, %x = 100

  while (%x) {
    noop $charcheck1(tehis #is a #test asd asd a #as asd # asd # asd ## a as a a aa sd a asd a asd a asd as asd asd asd asd asd as asd as dasd asd asdasd # asd a # asd # asda a # asd #asd as #a #asd #asda #reasa #adsaa #asd #asdae as asd a sdas asd as asd asd asd ad  ,35)
    dec %x
  }
  echo -b WhileLoop Time: $calc($ticks - %t)
}

just do /ctest

My average regex time was between 65-85 ms, while the while loop was between 700 and 800ms.