49. The system of claim 48 , wherein the processor is further configured to store a unique character class as a mask, wherein each possible character in the mask is set based on the character being part of the character class, and not set based on the character not being part of the character class.
48. The system of claim 31 , wherein the plurality of node types includes a character class node type and the character class node type represents a portion of the pattern to match for the element by employing a Boolean-or operation of at least one value.