send vs. method invocation benchmark comparison

output.txt

 % bundle exec ./send-bench.rb
Warming up --------------------------------------
              native   973.581k i/100ms
              symbol   476.433k i/100ms
              string   355.763k i/100ms
              frozen   417.573k i/100ms
     constant-frozen   356.666k i/100ms
       instance_eval   738.433k i/100ms
    singleton_method   468.459k i/100ms
            subclass   794.878k i/100ms
           subclass2   591.266k i/100ms
Calculating -------------------------------------
              native      9.189M (± 5.0%) i/s -     46.732M in   5.099022s
              symbol      5.274M (±15.2%) i/s -     25.727M in   5.033201s
              string      2.913M (±11.6%) i/s -     14.586M in   5.093338s
              frozen      3.687M (± 5.7%) i/s -     18.791M in   5.113343s
     constant-frozen      3.411M (±15.5%) i/s -     16.763M in   5.082502s
       instance_eval      7.389M (±10.3%) i/s -     36.922M in   5.068440s
    singleton_method      4.823M (± 8.2%) i/s -     24.360M in   5.091255s
            subclass      7.408M (±13.1%) i/s -     36.564M in   5.059877s
           subclass2      8.715M (± 9.6%) i/s -     43.754M in   5.071426s

Comparison:
              native:  9188725.1 i/s
           subclass2:  8714509.7 i/s - same-ish: difference falls within error
            subclass:  7408254.5 i/s - 1.24x  (± 0.00) slower
       instance_eval:  7388878.9 i/s - 1.24x  (± 0.00) slower
              symbol:  5274300.3 i/s - 1.74x  (± 0.00) slower
    singleton_method:  4823225.5 i/s - 1.91x  (± 0.00) slower
              frozen:  3687469.2 i/s - 2.49x  (± 0.00) slower
     constant-frozen:  3411027.9 i/s - 2.69x  (± 0.00) slower
              string:  2913035.2 i/s - 3.15x  (± 0.00) slower

send-bench.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'bundler/inline'

gemfile do
  source 'https://rubygems.org'
  gem 'benchmark-ips', require: 'benchmark/ips'
end

INCREMENT = "increment".freeze

class SendTest

  attr_reader :count
  def initialize(eval_method: nil, singleton_method: nil)
    @count = 0
    if eval_method then
      instance_eval <<~RUBY
        def #{eval_method}
          increment
        end
      RUBY
    end

    if singleton_method then
      self.define_singleton_method(singleton_method.to_sym) do
        increment
      end
    end
  end

  def increment
    @count += 1
  end

  def kaboom
    raise "kaboom"
  end
end

class Sub < SendTest
  def incr2
    increment
  end

  def incr3
    @count += 1
  end
end

# s1 = SendTest.new
# s2 = SendTest.new(create_alias: :other)

# puts "s1"
# s1.increment
# puts "s2"
# s2.other

Benchmark.ips do |x|

  x.config(:time => 5, :warmup => 2)

  x.report("native") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.increment
    end
  end

  x.report("symbol") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.send(:increment)
    end
  end

  x.report("string") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.send("increment")
    end
  end

  x.report("frozen") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new
    frozen = "increment".freeze
    times.times do |x|
      t.send(frozen)
    end
  end

  x.report("constant-frozen") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.send(INCREMENT)
    end
  end

  x.report("instance_eval") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new(eval_method: "do_increment")
    times.times do |x|
      t.do_increment
    end
  end

  x.report("singleton_method") do |times|
    t = SendTest.new(singleton_method: "singleton_increment")
    times.times do |x|
      t.singleton_increment
    end
  end

  x.report("subclass") do |times|
    t = Sub.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.incr2
    end
  end

  x.report("subclass2") do |times|
    t = Sub.new
    times.times do |x|
      t.incr3
    end
  end

  x.compare!
end