sepsplit - splitting into fields together with matched field

Hello netlanders,

is there a faster POSIX awk function solving task SEPSPLIT below?



task SEPSPLIT

searched: 

function sepsplit(re, a, s) in POSIX awk with:
s is split into the fields a[0], a[2], ...,a[2n] by the field separator 
regex re and a[2*i+1] is the string matched by re between a[2*i] and 
a[2*i+2] for i = 0, 1, ..., n - 1. sepsplit() returns n.

solution:

function sepsplit(re, a, s,   suffix, m) {
  m = 0
  suffix = s
  while (match(suffix, re)) {
    a[m++] = substr(suffix, 1, RSTART - 1)
    a[m++] = substr(suffix, RSTART, RLENGTH)
    suffix = substr(suffix, RSTART + RLENGTH)
  }
  a[m] = suffix
  return m / 2 
}



remark:

there is also gawk solution with gensub() and index() possible.



Any useful answer is appreciated.

Regards,

Steffen "goedel" Schuler