rescue_bench.rb

# -*- mode: ruby; coding: utf-8-unix -*-

require 'benchmark'

Benchmark.bm(10) do |bm|
  a = nil
  bm.report 'ternary op' do
    10000.times { a ? a.name : 'unknown' }
  end
  bm.report 'rescue' do
    10000.times { a.name rescue 'unknown' }
  end
end

result.txt

% ruby rescue.rb 
                user     system      total        real
ternary op  0.000000   0.000000   0.000000 (  0.002311)
rescue      0.100000   0.010000   0.110000 (  0.118088)