Codility binary gap solution using regex

Regex is computationally heavy. I would consider simply iterating through the bits, keeping track of both highest binary gap and current binary gap. You could add optimizations such as that proposed by @konijn to bail out of iteration when you reach a point that you can no longer logically find a larger binary gap than your current max value.

That could be as simple as:

The following is updated per comments:

function binaryGap(number) {
    var binary = (number >>> 0).toString(2);
    var maxGap = 0;
    var currentGap = 0;
    var inGap = false;
    var length = binary.length;
    /*
    Fast return if binary string length is less than 3
    and no gap is possible
    */
    if(length < 3) {
        return 0;
    }
    /*
    Start iterating bits.  We start with second character.
    */
    for(var i = 1; i < length; i++) {
        /*
        See if we should continue evaluation based on whether
        we can actually exceed current maxGap number
        */
        if (maxGap >= currentGap + length - i) {
            break;
        }
        if (inGap === false) {
           // we need to check to see if a new gap is started
           if (binary[i-1] === '1' && binary[i] === '0') {
               // we are in a new gap
               currentGap = 1;
               inGap = true;
           }
        } else {
           // we need to see if gap has ended
           if (binary[i] === '1') {
               // gap has ended
               if (currentGap > maxGap) {
                   maxGap = currentGap;
               }
           } else {
               // gap has continued
               currentGap++;
           }
        }
    }
    return maxGap;
}

Here is a simple performance test I set up comparing the approaches. Typically, I am seeing the bit iteration method working in about 20-25% of the time that the regex works.

https://jsfiddle.net/2475w4n0/2/