Optimize the beginning, and anchor it.
^[A-Za-z0-9_]{2}(?:|[A-Za-z0-9_]{2,})$
(Also, you did say to ignore the regex itself, but I guessed you probably wanted 0-9
, not 0_9
)
EDIT Hm, I was sure I read that you want to match lines. Remove the anchors (^$
) if you want to match inside the line as well. If you do match full lines only, anchors will speed you up (well, the front anchor ^
will, at least).