# Faster\_csv vs File+split, why it is not faster?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/faster-csv-vs-file-split-why-it-is-not-faster/153842>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 21, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/faster-csv-vs-file-split-why-it-is-not-faster/153842 "2008-11-21T18:59:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pabloq)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/faster-csv-vs-file-split-why-it-is-not-faster/153842/1 "2008-11-21T18:59:50Z")

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Hi folks,

Why I’m getting this result? is It due just to this specif problem?

the file has 293858 record, here is some record samples:

“MARCOS, LUIS”,“547 N LAKE ST”,"",“MUNDELEIN”,“IL”,“000000000”  
“BALDWIN, T & S”,“4732 NE 203RD ST”,"",“LAKE FOREST  
PARK”,“WA”,“000000000”  
“RYBOLT, C”,“401 CEDAR DR”,"",“CLINTON”,“IL”,“000000000”  
“WELDT, KRISTINA”,“1945 N ORLEANS ST”,"",“MCHENRY”,“IL”,“000000000”  
…

CODE

require ‘benchmark’

Benchmark.bm do |x|  
x.report do  
FasterCSV.foreach(“data\_test/match.csv”) do |row|  
end  
end  
end

Benchmark.bm do |x|  
x.report do  
File.new(“data\_test/match.csv”,‘r’).each{|line|  
row = line.split("","",-1)  
row[0].gsub!(’"’,’’)  
row[a.length-1].gsub!(’"’,’’)  
}  
end  
end

RESULTS

```
  user system total real

```

16.180000 0.740000 16.920000 ( _17.246190_)  
user system total real  
5.830000 0.120000 5.950000 ( _6.028469_)

is this true?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pabloq)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/faster-csv-vs-file-split-why-it-is-not-faster/153842/2 "2008-11-21T19:12:12Z")

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On Nov 21, 2008, at 11:55 AM, Pablo Q. wrote:

> RESULTS
> 
> ```
> user system total real
> 
> ```
> 
> 16.180000 0.740000 16.920000 ( _17.246190_)  
> user system total real  
> 5.830000 0.120000 5.950000 ( _6.028469_)
> 
> is this true?

Is it true that File.split() is faster than FasterCSV? Yeah, I bet it  
is. Likely reasons are:

- It’s written in C
- It doesn’t handle all types of CSV data, so it has less work to do

To give some examples, you split code doesn’t parse this valid CSV data:

no,quotes

Or this:

“embedded  
newlines”

Hope that explains things a bit.

James Edward G. II

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/ec9cab/32.png) [@pabloq](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pabloq)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/faster-csv-vs-file-split-why-it-is-not-faster/153842/3 "2008-11-21T19:28:36Z")

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I thought so…

I’m just comparing a single case of FasterCSV to all the implementation  
of  
the library.

Thank you for your time!

2008/11/21 James G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)