Simple benchmark of Marshal vs. YAML

marshal_vs_yaml.rb

#
# Test done on: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz
#

require 'yaml'

TIMES = 1000

obj = []
500.times { |i| obj << { 'key' * i => [ 'value' * i ] } }

yaml_dump_time = Time.now
TIMES.times { s = YAML.dump( obj ) }
yaml_dump_time = Time.now - yaml_dump_time

s = nil

yaml_load_time = Time.now
TIMES.times { YAML.dump( s ) }
yaml_load_time = Time.now - yaml_load_time

marshal_dump_time = Time.now
TIMES.times { s = Marshal.dump( obj ) }
marshal_dump_time = Time.now - marshal_dump_time

marshal_load_time = Time.now
TIMES.times { Marshal.dump( s ) }
marshal_load_time = Time.now - marshal_load_time

puts "YAML dump time: #{yaml_dump_time}"
#=> YAML dump time: 43.353922509

puts "YAML load time: #{yaml_load_time}"
#=> YAML load time: 0.033819831

puts "Marshal dump time: #{marshal_dump_time}"
#=> Marshal dump time: 1.106293497

puts "Marshal load time: #{marshal_load_time}"
#=> Marshal load time: 0.141277654


puts "Marshal dumps #{yaml_dump_time/Float( marshal_dump_time )} times faster."
#=> Marshal dumps 39.188445585701565 times faster.

puts "Marshal loads #{yaml_load_time/Float( marshal_load_time )} times faster."
#=> Marshal loads 0.23938556482541817 times faster.