1. A method of character class encoding and DFA execution in a DFA engine wherein an instruction execute pipeline in said DFA engine comprises at least one CCL memory, the method comprising: storing a plurality of character classes in said at least one character class memory; representing the plurality of character classes with a plurality of character class codes; extracting at least one character class code from an instruction; accessing said at least one character class memory to retrieve at least one accessed character class that corresponds to the at least one character class code; comparing a current input symbol with said at least one accessed character class; and executing the instruction to determine a transition to a next state.