Speed test of common serializers on python 2.7.2 (pickle, cPickle, ujson, cjson, simplejson, json, yajl, msgpack)

enc_dec_test.py

"""
Dependencies:

    pip install tabulate simplejson python-cjson ujson yajl msgpack-python

"""

from timeit import timeit 
from tabulate import tabulate

setup = '''d = {
    'words': """
        Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing 
        elit. Mauris adipiscing adipiscing placerat. 
        Vestibulum augue augue, 
        pellentesque quis sollicitudin id, adipiscing.
        """,
    'list': range(100),
    'dict': dict((str(i),'a') for i in xrange(100)),
    'int': 100,
    'float': 100.123456
}'''

setup_pickle    = '%s ; import cPickle ; src = cPickle.dumps(d)' % setup
setup_pickle2   = '%s ; import cPickle ; src = cPickle.dumps(d, 2)' % setup
setup_json      = '%s ; import json; src = json.dumps(d)' % setup
setup_msgpack   = '%s ; src = msgpack.dumps(d)' % setup

tests = [
    # (title, setup, enc_test, dec_test)
    ('pickle (ascii)', 'import pickle; %s' % setup_pickle, 'pickle.dumps(d, 0)', 'pickle.loads(src)'),
    ('pickle (binary)', 'import pickle; %s' % setup_pickle2, 'pickle.dumps(d, 2)', 'pickle.loads(src)'),
    ('cPickle (ascii)', 'import cPickle; %s' % setup_pickle, 'cPickle.dumps(d, 0)', 'cPickle.loads(src)'),
    ('cPickle (binary)', 'import cPickle; %s' % setup_pickle2, 'cPickle.dumps(d, 2)', 'cPickle.loads(src)'),
    ('json', 'import json; %s' % setup_json, 'json.dumps(d)', 'json.loads(src)'),
    ('simplejson-3.3.1', 'import simplejson; %s' % setup_json, 'simplejson.dumps(d)', 'simplejson.loads(src)'),
    ('python-cjson-1.0.5', 'import cjson; %s' % setup_json, 'cjson.encode(d)', 'cjson.decode(src)'),
    ('ujson-1.33', 'import ujson; %s' % setup_json, 'ujson.dumps(d)', 'ujson.loads(src)'),
    ('yajl 0.3.5', 'import yajl; %s' % setup_json, 'yajl.dumps(d)', 'yajl.loads(src)'),
    ('msgpack-python-0.3.0', 'import msgpack; %s' % setup_msgpack, 'msgpack.dumps(d)', 'msgpack.loads(src)'),
]

loops = 15000
enc_table = []
dec_table = []

print "Running tests (%d loops each)" % loops

for title, mod, enc, dec in tests:
    print title

    print "  [Encode]", enc 
    result = timeit(enc, mod, number=loops)
    enc_table.append([title, result])

    print "  [Decode]", dec 
    result = timeit(dec, mod, number=loops)
    dec_table.append([title, result])

enc_table.sort(key=lambda x: x[1])
enc_table.insert(0, ['Package', 'Seconds'])

dec_table.sort(key=lambda x: x[1])
dec_table.insert(0, ['Package', 'Seconds'])

print "\nEncoding Test (%d loops)" % loops
print tabulate(enc_table, headers="firstrow")

print "\nDecoding Test (%d loops)" % loops
print tabulate(dec_table, headers="firstrow")

pip.sh

#!/bin/sh -x
pip install tabulate
pip install cPickle
pip install json
pip install pickle
pip install cPickle
pip install json
pip install simplejson
pip install cjson
pip install ujson
pip install yajl
pip install msgpack