Measuring Lua performance

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kikito
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Measuring Lua performance

Post by kikito »

I'd like to compare two different implementations of an algorithm and I'm trying to come out with a satisfactory way of timing pieces of Lua code easily.

This is what I've got so far:

Code: Select all

-- time.lua
return function(title, f)

  collectgarbage()

  local startTime = os.clock()

  for i=0,10000 do f() end

  local endTime = os.clock()

  print( title, endTime - startTime )

end
It basically uses os.clock for measuring time in milliseconds, while repeating the same piece of code 10k times. This is how you use it:

Code: Select all

local time = require 'time'

time('first implementation', function()
  -- do stuff here
end)

time('second implementation, function()
  -- do other stuff here
end)
Output:

Code: Select all

first implementation     0.1
second implementation 0.01
I'd like to know your opinion; do you see any obvious problem with this implementation? What would you have done differently?

Thanks!
When I write def I mean function.
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GijsB
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by GijsB »

I think that that is the best way to do it.
Rad3k
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by Rad3k »

One drawback of this approach is that it only tells you how much time passed between starting and finishing a certain task, but this can depend on what the other programs (and OS) are doing (edit: ignore this - not true). On Linux (maybe Mac too) you can use time command. It measures only the time CPU spent executing the command you specified.
Last edited by Rad3k on Sat Sep 10, 2011 2:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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benloran
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by benloran »

Depending on what you're measuring, you may want to consider disabling the garbage collector completely with collectgarbage('stop') at the beginning. Otherwise, that's exactly how I do it.

You could also look into using something like luaProfiler or pepperfish (the latter is much easier to set up).
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Xgoff
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by Xgoff »

kikito wrote:I'd like to compare two different implementations of an algorithm and I'm trying to come out with a satisfactory way of timing pieces of Lua code easily.

This is what I've got so far:

Code: Select all

-- time.lua
return function(title, f)

  collectgarbage()

  local startTime = os.clock()

  for i=0,10000 do f() end

  local endTime = os.clock()

  print( title, endTime - startTime )

end
It basically uses os.clock for measuring time in milliseconds, while repeating the same piece of code 10k times. This is how you use it:

Code: Select all

local time = require 'time'

time('first implementation', function()
  -- do stuff here
end)

time('second implementation, function()
  -- do other stuff here
end)
Output:

Code: Select all

first implementation     0.1
second implementation 0.01
I'd like to know your opinion; do you see any obvious problem with this implementation? What would you have done differently?

Thanks!
it probably wouldn't hurt to subtract from those the runtime of a loop calling a (localized) empty function with the same number of iterations. for some things you might be timing the function call overhead could be fairly significant
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vrld
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by vrld »

Rad3k wrote:One drawback of this approach is that it only tells you how much time passed between starting and finishing a certain task
os.clock() measures CPU time, so it's equivalent to the time command.
For simple profiling this seems to be the best approach. However, I would add a relative comparison of the algorithms.
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Rad3k
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by Rad3k »

vrld wrote: os.clock() measures CPU time, so it's equivalent to the time command.
I didn't know about that - my bad, I should have checked it myself.
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kikito
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Re: Measuring Lua performance

Post by kikito »

I must have forgotten to press the "Submit" button.

Thanks for all the feedback. I still need to do some more tests, but it's good to know that the path I'm walking looks correct.

Regards!
When I write def I mean function.
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