What is the correct way to use return instead of rewrite in nginx config?

Question

Nginx

Good day.
After watching the report by Igor Sysoev on HL++ https://vimeo.com/117154512 , I concluded that it is better to avoid using regular expressions and rewrites in the Nginx configuration, but I don’t know how to avoid this in the following situation, you need to rewrite the following

location /tst_
  rewrite ^/tst_([0-9]+)_(.+) /?mode=feed&feed=$1&token=$2 last;
  rewrite ^/tst_([0-9]+) /?mode=feed&feed=$1 last
}

I can avoid it like this, but then I have to resort to regular expressions

location ~/tst_([0-9]+) {
  return 302 http://example.ru/?mode=feed&feed=$1;
  location ~/tst_([0-9]+)_(.+) {
    return 302 http://example.ru/?mode=feed&feed=$1&token=$2;
  }
}

What is the priority to use? Or is it possible to somehow avoid both rewrites and regular expressions (or escape the regular expression in this case)

Answer 1

You made some wrong thought.
Correct: if possible, avoid location with regular expressions.
Your first option will run faster. In addition, it is not equivalent to the second, because it does not cause a redirect.