bench.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'benchmark'

N=1000    # number of parse iterations
T=10000   # number of timer update samples

# build some sample timer update strings w/#{T} values
samples = []
T.times { samples << ((Kernel.rand(1000) + 100.0) / 100.0) }
v1_sample_update = "app.foo.response_time|#{samples.join(',')}|t"
v2_sample_update = "t|app.foo.response_time|#{samples.join(',')}"

# V1 parsing (split, no to_i)
t = Benchmark.realtime do
  N.times do
    metric, samples, update_type = v1_sample_update.split("|")
    samples = samples.split(",")
  end
end

puts "v1 split parsing (without to_i): #{t*1000/N}ms per message"

# V1 parsing (split, to_f)
t = Benchmark.realtime do
  N.times do
    metric, samples, update_type = v1_sample_update.split("|")
    samples = samples.split(",").collect { |s| s.to_i }
  end
end

puts "v1 split parsing (with to_i): #{t*1000/N}ms per message"

output

# ruby-1.9.2-p320
v1 split parsing (without to_i): 1.7741000652313232ms per message
v1 split parsing (with to_i): 3.394620180130005ms per message