How to get execution time in rails console?

Understanding Benchmark.measure

When you execute your code, Benchmark.measure returns a Benchmark::Tms object, which offers comprehensive metrics, including the all-important CPU time. It's like getting back a detailed report card on your code's performance!

Making sense of Benchmark::Tms

In the world of benchmarks, Benchmark::Tms is the key holder. The output from this is typically in the following format:

user     system      total        real
1.200000   0.000000   1.200000 (  1.231074)
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In this output, 'user' is the CPU time in user-mode, 'system' is system-mode, the 'total' is the sum of both, and 'real' represents the total elapsed real-time. Now isn't that handy?

Going deeper: Iteration Performance

Sometimes you want to know more - how does your code perform on an iterative basis? Or how does alternate processes stack up against each other? The benchmark-ips gem can help with this and provide an iterative performance comparison.

# Loading required gem equivalent to taking your protein before a workout!
require 'benchmark/ips'

Benchmark.ips do |x|
  # Oh look, queries are having a race!
  x.report("find_each") { User.find_each { |user| user } }
  x.report("all.each") { User.all.each { |user| user } }
  x.compare!
end
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If you're looking for more in-depth insights, such as memory allocation, using the execution_time gem might be your picnic.

Quick visual splashes with MiniProfiler

Some devs prefer a go-green, aesthetic approach to their consoles. rack-mini-profiler is the perfect tool to add a stopwatch to your development pages, providing direct execution time of your database calls.

Log'em all - ActiveRecord Logger

Being a savvy developer involves taking advantage of available tools. One such tool is ActiveRecord::Base.logger. It enables you to inspect SQL execution times right in your Rails server log file or console.

# Logger - for times when you want SQL to talk back to you!
ActiveRecord::Base.logger = Logger.new(STDOUT)
User.all
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