ruby benchmarking template

benchmark.rb

##############
### Benchmarks
##############
require 'benchmark'
# http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-1.9.3/libdoc/benchmark/rdoc/Benchmark.html
# http://rubylearning.com/blog/2013/06/19/how-do-i-benchmark-ruby-code/
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/556405/what-do-real-user-and-sys-mean-in-the-output-of-time1/556411#556411

iterations = 100_000 # How many times to test?

# when doing benchmarks that test code that executes very quickly,
# you need to do many iterations to see a meaningful number.

# (20) is padding for headers
Benchmark.bmbm(20) do |bm|
  # `bmbm` first runs the code as a 'rehearsal' to force any initialization that needs to happen,
  # then it forces the GC to run, then it runs the benchmark again 'for real'.
  # This ensures that the system is fully initialized and the benchmark is fair.

  # First Attempt
  bm.report('Challenger 1') do
    iterations.times do
      # Code goes here
    end
  end

  # Second Attempt
  bm.report('Challenger 2') do
    iterations.times do
      # Code goes here
    end
  end

end