When I apply each_value to a hash, it takes significantly longer than when I use values, even though each_value ostensibly avoids allocating and copying an array.
I wrote a simple comparison:
require 'benchmark/ips'
some_hash = File.open('with_an.dat') { |f| Marshal.load f }
Benchmark.ips do |x|
x.report "calling each_value" do
some_hash.each_value
end
x.report "calling values" do
some_hash.values
end
x.compare!
end
Benchmark.ips do |x|
x.report "summing each_value" do
some_hash.each_value.inject &:+
end
x.report "summing values" do
some_hash.values.inject &:+
end
x.compare!
end
And here were the results:
Calculating -------------------------------------
calling each_value 58.166k i/100ms
calling values 2.000 i/100ms
-------------------------------------------------
calling each_value 1.312M (±40.7%) i/s - 5.468M
calling values 29.423 (±10.2%) i/s - 146.000
Comparison:
calling each_value: 1312156.6 i/s
calling values: 29.4 i/s - 44596.28x slower
Calculating -------------------------------------
summing each_value 1.000 i/100ms
summing values 1.000 i/100ms
-------------------------------------------------
summing each_value 2.107 (± 0.0%) i/s - 11.000
summing values 8.002 (±12.5%) i/s - 40.000
Comparison:
summing values: 8.0 i/s
summing each_value: 2.1 i/s - 3.80x slower
As expected, just calling each of the methods, each_value was much faster, since it only has to create an Enumerator, and doesn't actually traverse the hash table. Meanwhile, values has to copy the entire array.
Yet, when I add the values up, it appears that the each_value approach is 3x slower than the values approach. Why would that be?