use strstr for a faster find implementation (#17672)

* use strstr for a faster find implementation
* stress the -d:release and -d:danger switches

doc/tut1.rst

@@ -67,6 +67,11 @@ aiming for your debugging pleasure. With `-d:release` some checks are
 `turned off and optimizations are turned on
 <nimc.html#compiler-usage-compileminustime-symbols>`_.
 
+For benchmarking or production code, use the `-d:release` switch.
+For comparing the performance with unsafe languages like C, use the `-d:danger` switch
+in order to get meaningful, comparable results. Otherwise Nim might be handicapped
+by checks that are **not even available** for C.
+
 Though it should be pretty obvious what the program does, I will explain the
 syntax: statements which are not indented are executed when the program
 starts. Indentation is Nim's way of grouping statements. Indentation is

lib/pure/strutils.nim

@@ -1826,6 +1826,9 @@ func find*(a: SkipTable, s, sub: string, start: Natural = 0, last = 0): int {.
 when not (defined(js) or defined(nimdoc) or defined(nimscript)):
   func c_memchr(cstr: pointer, c: char, n: csize_t): pointer {.
                 importc: "memchr", header: "<string.h>".}
+  func c_strstr(haystack, needle: cstring): cstring {.
+    importc: "strstr", header: "<string.h>".}
+
   const hasCStringBuiltin = true
 else:
   const hasCStringBuiltin = false
@@ -1889,9 +1892,29 @@ func find*(s, sub: string, start: Natural = 0, last = 0): int {.rtl,
   ## * `replace func<#replace,string,string,string>`_
   if sub.len > s.len: return -1
   if sub.len == 1: return find(s, sub[0], start, last)
-  var a {.noinit.}: SkipTable
-  initSkipTable(a, sub)
-  result = find(a, s, sub, start, last)
+
+  template useSkipTable {.dirty.} =
+    var a {.noinit.}: SkipTable
+    initSkipTable(a, sub)
+    result = find(a, s, sub, start, last)
+
+  when not hasCStringBuiltin:
+    useSkipTable()
+  else:
+    when nimvm:
+      useSkipTable()
+    else:
+      when hasCStringBuiltin:
+        if last == 0 and s.len > start:
+          let found = c_strstr(s[start].unsafeAddr, sub)
+          if not found.isNil:
+            result = cast[ByteAddress](found) -% cast[ByteAddress](s.cstring)
+          else:
+            result = -1
+        else:
+          useSkipTable()
+      else:
+        useSkipTable()
 
 func rfind*(s: string, sub: char, start: Natural = 0, last = -1): int {.rtl,
     extern: "nsuRFindChar".} =