Benchmarking serialization speed of YAML, JSON, Marshal, and MessagePack in MRI

benchmark_results.rb

# 2.4.2p198 on MBP 2017 i7

      user     system      total        real

-- YAML        size=86 delta_vsz=0 delta_rss=2092
 17.730000   0.060000  17.820000 ( 17.851288)

-- JSON        size=83 delta_vsz=0 delta_rss=4
  0.850000   0.000000   0.870000 (  0.892370)

-- Marshal     size=79 delta_vsz=0 delta_rss=0
  0.620000   0.000000   0.640000 (  0.648228)

-- MessagePack size=63 delta_vsz=128 delta_rss=828
  0.380000   0.000000   0.410000 (  0.406834)

serialization_benchmarks.rb

require 'benchmark'
require 'yaml'
require 'json'
require 'msgpack'

def get_mem
    `ps ux -p #{$$} |grep -v USER|awk '{print $5, $6}'`
        .split(/\s+/)
        .map(&:to_i)
end

def _report klass, met_dump, met_load, this, this_many # yes, quick & dirty
    mem0 = get_mem
    i = 0
    ser_size = nil
    this_many.times do
      ser = klass.send met_dump, this
      ser_size = ser.size if (i += 1) == 1
      klass.send met_load, ser
    end
    mem1 = get_mem
    puts "size=#{ser_size} delta_vsz=#{mem1[0] - mem0[0]} delta_rss=#{mem1[1] - mem0[1]}"
end

Benchmark.bmbm do |bm|
  this_many = 100000
  this = {aim: true,
          nested: {number: 100_000_000,
                   string: 'my life close twice before...'}}

  bm.report "-- YAML" do
    _report YAML, :dump, :load, this, this_many
  end
  bm.report "-- JSON" do
    _report JSON, :generate, :parse, this, this_many
  end
  bm.report "-- Marshal" do
    _report Marshal, :dump, :load, this, this_many
  end
  bm.report "-- MessagePack" do
    _report MessagePack, :pack, :unpack, this, this_many
  end

end