‘inject’, ‘each’ and ‘times’ methods much slower in Ruby 1.9 on Mac OS X

Jay Fields has a nice post about the goodness of Enumerable#inject in Ruby. Like anyone who enjoys functional programming, I appreciate the concept behind inject and its possible usage. Your language may implement it with a method called inject, a function fold or reduce, but the concept is the same. I think that there is nothing inherently evil about using Enumerable#inject in your code, however one must be very careful and question whether there are simpler alternatives available. Abuse of creative usage of inject or cleverness is often paid for in terms of the readability of the code and can’t be discouraged enough. Another good reason not use inject is when performance counts and we are dealing with large datasets. In Ruby 1.8 in fact, inject is much slower than an equivalent solution implemented with the each iterator or other available methods. People will tell you that this doesn’t matter, but in the real world, having a method take twice as long because you opted for inject rather than each, is not always justifiable or acceptable.

For example, the following snippet benchmarks four different methods for summing the first n natural numbers. It benchmarks them for n = 10, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107 and 108. Please note that the problem at hand can be solved arithmetically, like Gauss did when he was 10, but it will serve us well to test differences in the raw speed of the compared methods provided by Ruby.

sum.png

The sum_with_while is admittedly ugly, and entirely not idiomatic. No Rubyist would write the method in that way. It’s there though, in order to have a non-iterator, loop-based solution which doesn’t rely on methods from the Enumerable class. It will give us some perspective. Also, the choice of reopening the Integer class, rather than writing methods that accept n as an argument, is entirely arbitrary and doesn’t affect the benchmark in any way.

require 'benchmark'
include Benchmark

class Integer
  def sum_with_inject
    (1..self).inject(0) { |sum, i| sum + i }
  end

  def sum_with_each
    sum = 0
    (1..self).each { |i| sum += i }
    sum
  end

  def sum_with_times
    sum = 0
    (self+1).times { |i| sum += i }
    sum
  end

  def sum_with_while
    sum, i = 0, 1
    while i <= self
      sum += i
      i += 1
    end
    sum
  end
end

(1..8).each do |p|
  n = 10**p
  puts "=== 10^#{p} ==="
  benchmark do |x|
    x.report("inject: ") { n.sum_with_inject }
    x.report("each:   ") { n.sum_with_each }
    x.report("times:  ") { n.sum_with_times }
    x.report("while:  ") { n.sum_with_while }
  end
end

These are the results on my MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz with ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i686-darwin9.2.0]:


    === 10^1 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000071)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000020)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000018)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000022)
    === 10^2 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000084)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000043)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000041)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000058)
    === 10^3 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000677)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000335)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000338)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000492)
    === 10^4 ===
    inject:   0.010000   0.000000   0.010000 (  0.008473)
    each:     0.010000   0.000000   0.010000 (  0.003258)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.003142)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.004887)
    === 10^5 ===
    inject:   0.120000   0.000000   0.120000 (  0.115180)
    each:     0.060000   0.000000   0.060000 (  0.071298)
    times:    0.070000   0.000000   0.070000 (  0.063845)
    while:    0.080000   0.000000   0.080000 (  0.079443)
    === 10^6 ===
    inject:   1.410000   0.010000   1.420000 (  1.414042)
    each:     0.870000   0.000000   0.870000 (  0.882625)
    times:    0.870000   0.000000   0.870000 (  0.875730)
    while:    1.030000   0.000000   1.030000 (  1.039151)
    === 10^7 ===
    inject:  14.320000   0.030000  14.350000 ( 14.351873)
    each:     9.050000   0.030000   9.080000 (  9.086909)
    times:    9.120000   0.020000   9.140000 (  9.137516)
    while:   10.610000   0.020000  10.630000 ( 10.654512)
    === 10^8 ===
    inject: 144.070000   0.310000 144.380000 (144.517040)
    each:    90.380000   0.360000  90.740000 ( 90.898424)
    times:   89.960000   0.280000  90.240000 ( 90.476917)
    while:  106.760000   0.380000 107.140000 (107.741355)

These results are not surprising. The ugly sum_with_while method is just slightly faster than the sum_with_inject one, while sum_with_each and sum_with_times are significantly faster than sum_with_inject. For n sufficiently large, each is (linearly) about 1.5 times faster than inject. Again, nothing new, if you have done some number crunching with Ruby, you already know a few tricks and the fact that inject is notoriously slow.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to see how things have improved with Ruby 1.9. Here comes the surprise: ruby 1.9.0 (2008-03-21 revision 15825) [i686-darwin9.2.0] yields the following results.


    === 10^1 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000045)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000038)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000040)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000016)
    === 10^2 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000311)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000293)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000292)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000014)
    === 10^3 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.003008)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.002914)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.002891)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000079)
    === 10^4 ===
    inject:   0.020000   0.010000   0.030000 (  0.029825)
    each:     0.020000   0.010000   0.030000 (  0.028448)
    times:    0.020000   0.010000   0.030000 (  0.028573)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000717)
    === 10^5 ===
    inject:   0.230000   0.090000   0.320000 (  0.315088)
    each:     0.210000   0.100000   0.310000 (  0.306036)
    times:    0.210000   0.090000   0.300000 (  0.304437)
    while:    0.030000   0.000000   0.030000 (  0.021261)
    === 10^6 ===
    inject:   2.410000   0.920000   3.330000 (  3.332743)
    each:     2.320000   0.930000   3.250000 (  3.259242)
    times:    2.320000   0.920000   3.240000 (  3.233116)
    while:    0.320000   0.000000   0.320000 (  0.328699)
    === 10^7 ===
    inject:  24.190000   9.150000  33.340000 ( 33.387602)
    each:    23.350000   9.180000  32.530000 ( 32.795653)
    times:   23.220000   9.100000  32.320000 ( 32.394359)
    while:    3.360000   0.020000   3.380000 (  3.377791)
    === 10^8 ===
    inject: 243.020000  91.920000 334.940000 (335.498686)
    each:   234.440000  92.490000 326.930000 (332.153885)
    times:  234.680000  93.470000 328.150000 (355.418129)
    while:   33.840000   0.160000  34.000000 ( 34.151623)

Look carefully, the good news is that while has been sped up by a factor of 3. You may notice that the execution time of the methods which employ inject, each and times are essentially the same in Ruby 1.9. This could be considered good news too, if we didn’t take a look at the previous output. All three methods in Ruby 1.9 are 2 to 3 times slower than in Ruby 1.8. each and times were both faster than while and are now 10 times slower! Forget about inject for a second, which after all can be avoided; but idiomatic Ruby code uses each iterators all over the place. Am I missing something, or Houston, do we have a problem? This loss of performance, if confirmed, should be considered as a bug.

To expose the extent of this regression, let’s see how JRuby 1.1RC3 (with the -J-server option enabled) performs:


    ==== 10^1 ===
    inject:   0.150000   0.000000   0.150000 (  0.150000)
    each:     0.001000   0.000000   0.001000 (  0.001000)
    times:    0.001000   0.000000   0.001000 (  0.001000)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)
    ==== 10^2 ===
    inject:   0.001000   0.000000   0.001000 (  0.002000)
    each:     0.001000   0.000000   0.001000 (  0.001000)
    times:    0.001000   0.000000   0.001000 (  0.001000)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.001000)
    ==== 10^3 ===
    inject:   0.011000   0.000000   0.011000 (  0.011000)
    each:     0.017000   0.000000   0.017000 (  0.018000)
    times:    0.012000   0.000000   0.012000 (  0.012000)
    while:    0.004000   0.000000   0.004000 (  0.003000)
    ==== 10^4 ===
    inject:   0.092000   0.000000   0.092000 (  0.091000)
    each:     0.020000   0.000000   0.020000 (  0.020000)
    times:    0.018000   0.000000   0.018000 (  0.018000)
    while:    0.008000   0.000000   0.008000 (  0.008000)
    ==== 10^5 ===
    inject:   0.059000   0.000000   0.059000 (  0.058000)
    each:     0.030000   0.000000   0.030000 (  0.030000)
    times:    0.031000   0.000000   0.031000 (  0.031000)
    while:    0.024000   0.000000   0.024000 (  0.024000)
    ==== 10^6 ===
    inject:   0.377000   0.000000   0.377000 (  0.377000)
    each:     0.269000   0.000000   0.269000 (  0.268000)
    times:    0.251000   0.000000   0.251000 (  0.251000)
    while:    0.153000   0.000000   0.153000 (  0.154000)
    ==== 10^7 ===
    inject:   3.411000   0.000000   3.411000 (  3.411000)
    each:     2.558000   0.000000   2.558000 (  2.558000)
    times:    2.492000   0.000000   2.492000 (  2.493000)
    while:    1.386000   0.000000   1.386000 (  1.385000)
    ==== 10^8 ===
    inject:  33.743000   0.000000  33.743000 ( 33.743000)
    each:    25.408000   0.000000  25.408000 ( 25.408000)
    times:   25.127000   0.000000  25.127000 ( 25.128000)
    while:   13.834000   0.000000  13.834000 ( 13.835000)

sum_with_while (the quickest one of the lot) in JRuby is 2.5 times faster than Ruby 1.9, or almost 8 times faster than Ruby 1.8. inject, each and times are 10 to 13 times faster in JRuby than 1.9.

Believe it or not, even Rubinius is faster than Ruby 1.9 (excluding while):


    === 10^1 ===
    inject:   0.000222   0.000000   0.000222 (  0.000230)
    each:     0.000152   0.000000   0.000152 (  0.000154)
    times:    0.000140   0.000000   0.000140 (  0.000141)
    while:    0.000148   0.000000   0.000148 (  0.000149)
    === 10^2 ===
    inject:   0.000390   0.000000   0.000390 (  0.000394)
    each:     0.000232   0.000000   0.000232 (  0.000239)
    times:    0.000164   0.000000   0.000164 (  0.000165)
    while:    0.000153   0.000000   0.000153 (  0.000165)
    === 10^3 ===
    inject:   0.001210   0.000000   0.001210 (  0.001208)
    each:     0.000827   0.000000   0.000827 (  0.000828)
    times:    0.000396   0.000000   0.000396 (  0.000388)
    while:    0.000223   0.000000   0.000223 (  0.000224)
    === 10^4 ===
    inject:   0.015619   0.000000   0.015619 (  0.015602)
    each:     0.006985   0.000000   0.006985 (  0.006980)
    times:    0.002393   0.000000   0.002393 (  0.002397)
    while:    0.001104   0.000000   0.001104 (  0.001105)
    === 10^5 ===
    inject:   0.212239   0.000000   0.212239 (  0.212221)
    each:     0.155911   0.000000   0.155911 (  0.155898)
    times:    0.114280   0.000000   0.114280 (  0.114267)
    while:    0.081416   0.000000   0.081416 (  0.081400)
    === 10^6 ===
    inject:   2.339344   0.000000   2.339344 (  2.339332)
    each:     1.880382   0.000000   1.880382 (  1.880340)
    times:    1.441064   0.000000   1.441064 (  1.441048)
    while:    1.277817   0.000000   1.277817 (  1.277779)
    === 10^7 ===
    inject:  23.969469   0.000000  23.969469 ( 23.969452)
    each:    20.468222   0.000000  20.468222 ( 20.468203)
    times:   16.952604   0.000000  16.952604 ( 16.952586)
    while:   14.341948   0.000000  14.341948 ( 14.341921)
    === 10^8 ===
    inject: 285.504220   0.000000 285.504220 (285.504203)
    each:   233.995257   0.000000 233.995257 (233.995240)
    times:  200.869457   0.000000 200.869457 (200.869444)
    while:  196.518120   0.000000 196.518120 (196.518106)

Is this issue with Ruby 1.9 being addressed?

Update:

Upon further investigation, the issue has been confirmed on Mac OS X, but it doesn’t exist on Linux. From within a virtual machine running Ubuntu on my Mac, I got the following results:


    === 10^1 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000017)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000009)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000009)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000007)
    === 10^2 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000025)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000031)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000024)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000013)
    === 10^3 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000253)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000131)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000144)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000001)
    === 10^4 ===
    inject:   0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)
    each:     0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)
    times:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)
    while:    0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.000000)
    === 10^5 ===
    inject:   0.040000   0.000000   0.040000 (  0.028453)
    each:     0.020000   0.000000   0.020000 (  0.027007)
    times:    0.030000   0.000000   0.030000 (  0.025450)
    while:    0.010000   0.000000   0.010000 (  0.015040)
    === 10^6 ===
    inject:   0.360000   0.000000   0.360000 (  0.358824)
    each:     0.340000   0.000000   0.340000 (  0.333370)
    times:    0.370000   0.000000   0.370000 (  0.378156)
    while:    0.240000   0.000000   0.240000 (  0.243033)
    === 10^7 ===
    inject:   4.040000   0.000000   4.040000 (  4.046872)
    each:     4.120000   0.010000   4.130000 (  4.160456)
    times:    3.530000   0.000000   3.530000 (  3.544973)
    while:    2.610000   0.000000   2.610000 (  2.613019)
    === 10^8 ===
    inject:  44.870000   0.040000  44.910000 ( 45.146779)
    each:    37.590000   0.020000  37.610000 ( 37.803406)
    times:   36.550000   0.010000  36.560000 ( 36.618813)
    while:   26.690000   0.010000  26.700000 ( 26.747007)

Conclusion: the inject, each and times methods are much slower in Ruby 1.9 on Mac. As you can see from the comments, this seems to be caused by the fact that the function sigsetjmp() was introduced during revision 15124 and it happens to be much slower on Mac OS X than it is on Linux.

Get more stuff like this

Subscribe to my mailing list to receive similar updates about programming.

Thank you for subscribing. Please check your email to confirm your subscription.

Something went wrong.

20 Comments

  1. Chris March 25, 2008
  2. Charles Oliver Nutter March 25, 2008
  3. Antonio Cangiano March 25, 2008
  4. Lawrence Oluyede March 25, 2008
  5. Charles Oliver Nutter March 25, 2008
  6. Antonio Cangiano March 25, 2008
  7. Radarek March 25, 2008
  8. Antonio Cangiano March 25, 2008
  9. Hans-Georg March 25, 2008
  10. Antonio Cangiano March 25, 2008
  11. James Deville March 25, 2008
  12. Antonio Cangiano March 25, 2008
  13. Chris March 26, 2008
  14. Antonio Cangiano March 26, 2008
  15. Andrés Suárez March 26, 2008
  16. Antonio Cangiano March 26, 2008
  17. Radarek March 26, 2008
  18. Antonio Cangiano March 26, 2008
  19. Andrés Suárez March 26, 2008
  20. Arthur Lyman April 2, 2008

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.