trying to match a string

[oj]

The drawback is that it's a lot easier to mess up the edge cases if you
do that (as this thread has shown).  The small speedup you get in
typical cases is quickly offset by extra debugging/testing time (or, for
that matter, arguing with c.l.py:ers over more or less contrived ways to
interpret the original post).

I disagree, from this thread, most of the erroneous solutions have
been attempts to match the entire string.

Guess it's up to personal preferences for how to best help others.
Unless the OP explicitly asks for something else, I prefer to use simple
and straight-forward solutions with reasonable execution behaviour over
clever tricks or odd-ball solutions; it's not a JAPH contest, after all.

[^LRM] *is* a simple and straight-forward regex - it isn't attempting
to do any clever tricks or anything odd-ball.

That said, I still think the sets solution is more elegant then the
regex solutions.