gistfile1.rb

require 'benchmark/ips'

class Foo
  def bar
    1
  end
end

foo = Foo.new

string_method = "bar"
symbol_method = :"bar"

Benchmark.ips do |bench|
  bench.report("send string") {foo.send(string_method)}
  bench.report("send symbol") {foo.send(symbol_method)}
end

# Ruby 2.0.0
# Calculating -------------------------------------
#          send string     43864 i/100ms
#          send symbol     57938 i/100ms
# -------------------------------------------------
#          send string  1373253.2 (±16.4%) i/s -    6667328 in   5.002895s
#          send symbol  1799751.7 (±9.3%) i/s -    8922452 in   5.000714s

# Ruby 1.9.3
# Calculating -------------------------------------
#          send string     45224 i/100ms
#          send symbol     58638 i/100ms
# -------------------------------------------------
#          send string  1358732.7 (±8.1%) i/s -    6783600 in   5.030276s
#          send symbol  2094714.2 (±6.7%) i/s -   10437564 in   5.008017s