Bug #11127: Symbol#== allocates at least one string, possibly two

• Status: Third Party's Issue
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -
• ruby -v: all versions
• Backport: 2.0.0: UNKNOWN, 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN

[headius (Charles Nutter)]

Symbol#== is implemented by Comparable, which uses Symbol#<=>, which coerces the symbol to a String so it can use String#<=> logic.

Most people don't know this, but it adds many hidden allocations to any Symbol-heavy code that that's doing lots of == comparisons.

I propose that Symbol should define its own == that doesn't have to do the extra work for <=>. The other Comparable methods are not important because Symbols usually compared using == or ===.

[headius (Charles Nutter)]

Oops, I may be mistaken...I see on trunk that Symbol does define #==. This may just be JRuby being a bit behind the times.

[headius (Charles Nutter)]

• Status changed from Open to Third Party's Issue

Nevermind.