### `String#blank?` Ruby Extension [![Gem Version](https://badge.fury.io/rb/fast_blank.png)](http://badge.fury.io/rb/fast_blank) [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/SamSaffron/fast_blank.png?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/SamSaffron/fast_blank) `fast_blank` is a simple C extension which provides a fast implementation of [Active Support's `String#blank?` method](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/String.html#method-i-blank-3F). ### How do you use it? require 'fast_blank' or add it to your Bundler Gemfile gem 'fast_blank' ### How fast is "Fast"? About 1.2–20x faster than Active Support on my machine (your mileage my vary, depends on string length): ``` $ bundle exec ./benchmark ================== Test String Length: 0 ================== Calculating ------------------------------------- Fast Blank 225.251k i/100ms Fast ActiveSupport 225.676k i/100ms Slow Blank 110.934k i/100ms New Slow Blank 221.792k i/100ms ------------------------------------------------- Fast Blank 29.673M (± 2.7%) i/s - 148.215M Fast ActiveSupport 28.249M (± 3.5%) i/s - 141.048M Slow Blank 2.158M (± 3.3%) i/s - 10.872M New Slow Blank 23.558M (± 3.2%) i/s - 117.772M Comparison: Fast Blank: 29673200.1 i/s Fast ActiveSupport: 28248894.5 i/s - 1.05x slower New Slow Blank: 23557900.0 i/s - 1.26x slower Slow Blank: 2157787.7 i/s - 13.75x slower ================== Test String Length: 6 ================== Calculating ------------------------------------- Fast Blank 201.185k i/100ms Fast ActiveSupport 205.076k i/100ms Slow Blank 102.061k i/100ms New Slow Blank 123.087k i/100ms ------------------------------------------------- Fast Blank 13.894M (± 2.3%) i/s - 69.409M Fast ActiveSupport 14.627M (± 3.5%) i/s - 73.212M Slow Blank 1.943M (± 2.3%) i/s - 9.798M New Slow Blank 2.796M (± 1.8%) i/s - 14.032M Comparison: Fast ActiveSupport: 14627063.7 i/s Fast Blank: 13893631.2 i/s - 1.05x slower New Slow Blank: 2795783.3 i/s - 5.23x slower Slow Blank: 1943025.9 i/s - 7.53x slower ================== Test String Length: 14 ================== Calculating ------------------------------------- Fast Blank 220.004k i/100ms Fast ActiveSupport 219.716k i/100ms Slow Blank 147.399k i/100ms New Slow Blank 106.651k i/100ms ------------------------------------------------- Fast Blank 24.949M (± 3.0%) i/s - 124.742M Fast ActiveSupport 24.491M (± 3.3%) i/s - 122.382M Slow Blank 4.292M (± 1.6%) i/s - 21.520M New Slow Blank 2.115M (± 2.4%) i/s - 10.665M Comparison: Fast Blank: 24948558.8 i/s Fast ActiveSupport: 24491245.1 i/s - 1.02x slower Slow Blank: 4292490.5 i/s - 5.81x slower New Slow Blank: 2115097.6 i/s - 11.80x slower ================== Test String Length: 24 ================== Calculating ------------------------------------- Fast Blank 206.555k i/100ms Fast ActiveSupport 208.513k i/100ms Slow Blank 137.733k i/100ms New Slow Blank 101.215k i/100ms ------------------------------------------------- Fast Blank 16.761M (± 2.7%) i/s - 83.861M Fast ActiveSupport 17.710M (± 3.2%) i/s - 88.618M Slow Blank 3.744M (± 2.0%) i/s - 18.732M New Slow Blank 1.962M (± 2.7%) i/s - 9.818M Comparison: Fast ActiveSupport: 17709936.5 i/s Fast Blank: 16760839.7 i/s - 1.06x slower Slow Blank: 3744048.4 i/s - 4.73x slower New Slow Blank: 1961831.1 i/s - 9.03x slower ================== Test String Length: 136 ================== Calculating ------------------------------------- Fast Blank 201.772k i/100ms Fast ActiveSupport 189.120k i/100ms Slow Blank 129.439k i/100ms New Slow Blank 90.677k i/100ms ------------------------------------------------- Fast Blank 16.718M (± 2.8%) i/s - 83.534M Fast ActiveSupport 17.617M (± 3.6%) i/s - 87.941M Slow Blank 3.725M (± 3.0%) i/s - 18.639M New Slow Blank 1.940M (± 4.8%) i/s - 9.702M Comparison: Fast ActiveSupport: 17616782.1 i/s Fast Blank: 16718307.8 i/s - 1.05x slower Slow Blank: 3725097.6 i/s - 4.73x slower New Slow Blank: 1940271.2 i/s - 9.08x slower ``` Additionally, this gem allocates no strings during the test, making it less of a GC burden. ### Compatibility note: `fast_blank` supports MRI Ruby 1.9.3, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2, as well as Rubinius 2.x. Earlier versions of MRI are untested. `fast_blank` implements `String#blank?` as MRI would have implemented it, meaning it has 100% parity with `String#strip.length == 0`. Active Support's version also considers Unicode spaces. For example, `"\u2000\u2001\u2002\u2003\u2004\u2005\u2006\u2007\u2008\u2009\u200A\u202F\u205F\u3000".blank?` is true in Active Support even though `fast_blank` would treat it as *not* blank. Therefore, `fast_blank` also provides `blank_as?` which is a 100%-compatible Active Support `blank?` replacement. ### Credits * Author: Sam Saffron (sam.saffron@gmail.com) * https://github.com/SamSaffron/fast_blank * License: MIT * Gem template based on [CodeMonkeySteve/fast_xor](https://github.com/CodeMonkeySteve/fast_xor) ### Change log: 1.0.1: - Minor, avoid warnings if redefining blank? 1.0.0: - Adds Ruby 2.2 support ([@tjschuck](https://github.com/tjschuck) — [#9](https://github.com/SamSaffron/fast_blank/pull/9)) 0.0.2: - Removed rake dependency ([@tmm1](https://github.com/tmm1) — [#2](https://github.com/SamSaffron/fast_blank/pull/2)) - Unrolled internal loop to improve perf ([@tmm1](https://github.com/tmm1) — [#2](https://github.com/SamSaffron/fast_blank/pull/2))