Benching strings

bench.rb

require "benchmark"

Benchmark.bmbm do |bm|
  times = 10_000_000

  THESTRING = "asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234"
  bm.report("constant") { times.times {
    THESTRING
  } }

  bm.report("string-literal") { times.times {
    "asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234"
  } }

  bm.report("symbol-literal") { times.times {
    :asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234.to_s
  } }

  cache = {:asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234 => THESTRING}
  bm.report("symbol-string-cache") { times.times {
    cache[:asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234asdf1234]
  } }
end

result.txt

Rehearsal -------------------------------------------------------
constant              0.730000   0.000000   0.730000 (  0.726672)
string-literal        1.740000   0.000000   1.740000 (  1.749538)
symbol-literal        2.260000   0.000000   2.260000 (  2.259165)
symbol-string-cache   1.020000   0.000000   1.020000 (  1.015073)
---------------------------------------------- total: 5.750000sec

                          user     system      total        real
constant              0.720000   0.000000   0.720000 (  0.722902)
string-literal        1.730000   0.000000   1.730000 (  1.730661)
symbol-literal        2.370000   0.000000   2.370000 (  2.379667)
symbol-string-cache   1.030000   0.000000   1.030000 (  1.026997)