A quick look at the performance of different encoding / serialization protocols

io_performance.go

package io_test

import (
	"bytes"
	"encoding/binary"
	"encoding/hex"
	"encoding/json"
	"testing"
	"time"

	hashipack "github.com/hashicorp/go-msgpack/codec"
	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
	"github.com/vmihailenco/msgpack/v5"
	"gopkg.in/yaml.v3"
)

type ContactPreferences struct{}

type Contact struct {
	Preferences ContactPreferences

	// one of
	Phone string
	Email string
}

type Person struct {
	ID        string
	FirstName string
	LastName  string

	ContactInfo []Contact
}

func newID() string {
	data := make([]byte, 12)
	now := time.Now()

	binary.BigEndian.PutUint64(data[:8], uint64(now.Unix()))
	binary.BigEndian.PutUint32(data[8:], uint32(now.Nanosecond()))

	return hex.EncodeToString(data)
}

func harness(b *testing.B, encode func(interface{}) ([]byte, error), decode func([]byte, interface{}) error) {
	decoded := &Person{
		ID:        newID(),
		FirstName: "Alice",
		ContactInfo: []Contact{
			{
				Phone: "555-555-5555",
			},
			{
				Email: "alice@inwonderland.bizq",
			},
		},
	}
	encoded, err := encode(decoded)
	require.NoError(b, err)

	b.Run("Encode", func(b *testing.B) {
		for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
			_, err = encode(decoded)
			require.NoError(b, err)
		}
	})

	b.Run("Decode", func(b *testing.B) {
		target := &Person{}
		for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
			err = decode(encoded, target)
			require.NoError(b, err)
		}
	})
}

func BenchmarkJSON(b *testing.B) {
	harness(b, json.Marshal, json.Unmarshal)
}

func BenchmarkYAML(b *testing.B) {
	harness(b, yaml.Marshal, yaml.Unmarshal)
}

func BenchmarkMSGPACK(b *testing.B) {
	harness(b, msgpack.Marshal, msgpack.Unmarshal)
}

func BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK(b *testing.B) {
	handle := &hashipack.MsgpackHandle{}

	harness(b, func(i interface{}) ([]byte, error) {
		buf := bytes.NewBuffer(nil)
		enc := hashipack.NewEncoder(buf, handle)
		err := enc.Encode(i)
		return buf.Bytes(), err

	}, func(data []byte, i interface{}) error {
		return hashipack.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(data), handle).Decode(i)
	})
}

results.txt

goos: darwin
goarch: amd64
pkg: github.com/mjpitz/graphstore/internal/io
cpu: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-9980HK CPU @ 2.40GHz
BenchmarkJSON
BenchmarkJSON/Encode
BenchmarkJSON/Encode-16     	 1345912	       898.0 ns/op
BenchmarkJSON/Decode
BenchmarkJSON/Decode-16     	  371601	      3179 ns/op
BenchmarkYAML
BenchmarkYAML/Encode
BenchmarkYAML/Encode-16     	   61348	     17913 ns/op
BenchmarkYAML/Decode
BenchmarkYAML/Decode-16     	   46744	     25330 ns/op
BenchmarkMSGPACK
BenchmarkMSGPACK/Encode
BenchmarkMSGPACK/Encode-16  	  751675	      1564 ns/op
BenchmarkMSGPACK/Decode
BenchmarkMSGPACK/Decode-16  	  652670	      1850 ns/op
BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK
BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK/Encode
BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK/Encode-16         	  483379	      2506 ns/op
BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK/Decode
BenchmarkHashiMSGPACK/Decode-16         	  456537	      2611 ns/op
PASS

Process finished with exit code 0