bench.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import rethinkdb as r
import rethinkdb.ast
import rethinkdb.net
import sys
import types
import json
import ujson

from timeit import timeit

json_str = sys.argv[1]

c = r.connect()

q1 = (r.json(json_str), lambda x: x)
q2 = (r.json(json_str).coerce_to('STRING'), json.loads)
q3 = (r.json(json_str).coerce_to('STRING'), ujson.loads)

def runq(q):
        return q[1](q[0].run(c))

print runq(q1)
print runq(q2)
print runq(q3)

number = 10000
print "PROTOBUF", r.protobuf_implementation, ":", timeit(lambda: runq(q1), number=number)
print "JSON:", timeit(lambda: runq(q2), number=number)
print "UJSON:", timeit(lambda: runq(q3), number=number)

$ PROTOCOL_BUFFERS_PYTHON_IMPLEMENTATION=python python bench.py '[{"a":1,"b":2,"c":[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,"eight"]}]'
PROTOBUF python : 4.50813102722
JSON: 3.36550092697
UJSON: 3.19427013397

$ python bench.py '[{"a":1,"b":2,"c":[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,"eight"]}]'
PROTOBUF cpp : 2.72356700897
JSON: 1.9325799942
UJSON: 1.75751900673