RewriteRule Too Long?

[seodevhead]

I am using mod_rewrite to rewrite some URL's for a database application. One of my URL's I am rewriting must start (after the base folder) with a folder named after one of the 50 U.S. states (ie. /alabama/, /alaska/, /arizona/, and so on.).

 

Is it okay to include all 50 of these state names within my RegEx pattern conditional? Or is that way too much info to put into a pattern and be too intensive?

 

Example:

 

^/?(alabama|alaska|arizona|arkansas|california|colorado|connecticut|delaware|florida|georgia|hawaii|idaho|illinois|indiana|iowa|kansas|kentucky|louisiana|maine|maryland|massachussets|michigan|minnesota|mississippi|missouri|montana|nebraska|nevade|new-hampshire|new-mexico|new-york|north-carolina|north-dakota|ohio|oklahoma|oregon|pennsylvania|rhode-island|south-carolina|south-dakota|tennesee|texas|utah|vermont|virginia|washington|west-virigina|wisconsin|wyoming)/([a-zA-Z_]+)/([a-zA-Z_]+)$

 

 

[effigy]

That amount of alternation is not ideal at all. Can you use their abbreviations? If you must use the names, you should be able to condense the pattern a little, but it would still be a lot of work. For instance, (alabama|alaska) can be reduced to (ala(?:bama|ska)), which will prevent backtracking and reanalyzing 3 characters.