I want to process csv file. Here is small program in python and ruby: [root@taamportable GMS]# cat x.py import csv reader = csv.reader(file('x.csv')) header = reader.next() count = 0 for data in reader: count += 1 print count [root@taamportable GMS]# cat x.rb require 'csv' reader = CSV.open('x.csv', 'r') header = reader.shift count = 0 reader.each {|data| count += 1 } p count ******************************************************* Here is processing time: As you can see ruby is way to slow. Is there anything to do about ruby code? ******************************************************* [root@taamportable GMS]# time python x.py 26907 real 0m0.311s user 0m0.302s sys 0m0.009s [root@taamportable GMS]# time ruby x.rb 26907 real 1m48.296s user 1m36.853s sys 0m11.188s