Is there a performance gain in using single quotes vs double quotes in ruby?

Question

Do you know if using double quotes instead of single quotes in ruby decreases performance in any meaningful way in ruby 1.8 and 1.9.

so if I type

qu         


        

Answer 1

I modded Tim Snowhite's answer.

require 'benchmark'
n = 1000000
attr_accessor = :a_str_single, :b_str_single, :a_str_double, :b_str_double
@a_str_single = 'a string'
@b_str_single = 'b string'
@a_str_double = "a string"
@b_str_double = "b string"
@did_print = false
def reset!
    @a_str_single = 'a string'
    @b_str_single = 'b string'
    @a_str_double = "a string"
    @b_str_double = "b string"
end
Benchmark.bm do |x|
    x.report('assign single       ') { n.times do; c = 'a string'; end}
    x.report('assign via << single') { c =''; n.times do; c << 'a string'; end}
    x.report('assign double       ') { n.times do; c = "a string"; end}
    x.report('assing interp       ') { n.times do; c = "a string #{'b string'}"; end}
    x.report('concat single       ') { n.times do; 'a string ' + 'b string'; end}
    x.report('concat double       ') { n.times do; "a string " + "b string"; end}
    x.report('concat single interp') { n.times do; "#{@a_str_single}#{@b_str_single}"; end}
    x.report('concat single <<    ') { n.times do; @a_str_single << @b_str_single; end}
    reset!
    # unless @did_print
    #   @did_print = true
    #   puts @a_str_single.length 
    #   puts " a_str_single: #{@a_str_single} , b_str_single: #{@b_str_single} !!"
    # end
    x.report('concat double interp') { n.times do; "#{@a_str_double}#{@b_str_double}"; end}
    x.report('concat double <<    ') { n.times do; @a_str_double << @b_str_double; end}
end

Results:

jruby 1.7.4 (1.9.3p392) 2013-05-16 2390d3b on Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 1.7.0_10-b18 [darwin-x86_64]
       user     system      total        real
assign single         0.220000   0.010000   0.230000 (  0.108000)
assign via << single  0.280000   0.010000   0.290000 (  0.138000)
assign double         0.050000   0.000000   0.050000 (  0.047000)
assing interp         0.100000   0.010000   0.110000 (  0.056000)
concat single         0.230000   0.010000   0.240000 (  0.159000)
concat double         0.150000   0.010000   0.160000 (  0.101000)
concat single interp  0.170000   0.000000   0.170000 (  0.121000)
concat single <<      0.100000   0.000000   0.100000 (  0.076000)
concat double interp  0.160000   0.000000   0.160000 (  0.108000)
concat double <<      0.100000   0.000000   0.100000 (  0.074000)

ruby 1.9.3p429 (2013-05-15 revision 40747) [x86_64-darwin12.4.0]
       user     system      total        real
assign single         0.100000   0.000000   0.100000 (  0.103326)
assign via << single  0.160000   0.000000   0.160000 (  0.163442)
assign double         0.100000   0.000000   0.100000 (  0.102212)
assing interp         0.110000   0.000000   0.110000 (  0.104671)
concat single         0.240000   0.000000   0.240000 (  0.242592)
concat double         0.250000   0.000000   0.250000 (  0.244666)
concat single interp  0.180000   0.000000   0.180000 (  0.182263)
concat single <<      0.120000   0.000000   0.120000 (  0.126582)
concat double interp  0.180000   0.000000   0.180000 (  0.181035)
concat double <<      0.130000   0.010000   0.140000 (  0.128731)