Benchmark: Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Deep Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings.

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

window.foo = [
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
    {
        banana: {
            color: 'yellow'
        },
    },
];
window.bar = [{
        banana: {
            color: 'yellow'
        },
    },
    'cat',
    'dog',
    'bird',
];

Tests:

_.isEqual
_.isEqual(window.foo, window.bar)
JSON.stringify
JSON.stringify(window.foo) === JSON.stringify(window.bar);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual
JSON.stringify

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 4 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/145.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 145 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.isEqual	8493323.0 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify	7990146.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the benchmark definition and test cases.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark tests two different approaches to compare the equality of two complex data structures: a shallow array of strings (`window.foo`) and another shallow array of strings with an object in between (`window.bar`). The goal is to measure which approach performs better.

**Options Compared**

1. **Lodash's `_isEqual` function**: This is a JavaScript library, Lodash (https://lodash.com/), provides a variety of utility functions, including `_isEqual`. It's used here to compare the two data structures.
2. **JavaScript's `JSON.stringify()` method and equality operator (`===`)**: The benchmark tests if stringifying both data structures with `JSON.stringify()` and then comparing the resulting strings using the `===` operator yields the same result as Lodash's `_isEqual`.

**Pros and Cons of each approach**

1. **Lodash's `_isEqual` function**
	* Pros:
		+ Specifically designed for deep equality comparison
		+ Handles complex data structures (objects, arrays) with ease
		+ Robust against edge cases (e.g., null, undefined)
	* Cons:
		+ Additional library dependency
		+ Might be slower due to the overhead of the library
2. **JavaScript's `JSON.stringify()` method and equality operator (`===`)**
	* Pros:
		+ No additional library dependencies
		+ Can handle large data structures efficiently
	* Cons:
		+ Not specifically designed for deep equality comparison
		+ Might fail in certain edge cases (e.g., circular references, large object sizes)

**Other Considerations**

1. **Library usage**: When using Lodash's `_isEqual`, make sure to include the library in your project.
2. **Data structure complexity**: The benchmark data structures are shallow arrays of strings with a nested object. For more complex data structures (e.g., deeply nested objects, large arrays), consider using a dedicated equality comparison function.

**Alternatives**

1. **Other JavaScript libraries for deep equality comparison**, such as `deep-equal` or `compare-objects`, can be used in place of Lodash's `_isEqual`.
2. **Custom implementation**: If you have specific requirements and don't want to rely on external libraries, consider implementing a custom deep equality comparison function.
3. **Other approaches**: Other alternatives might involve using data structures like immutable.js or using a more advanced equality comparison method (e.g., `JSON.parse()` and `===`). However, these would require additional analysis and consideration of trade-offs.

I hope this explanation helps you understand the benchmark definition and test cases!

Related benchmarks:

Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Deep Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings. (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs JSON.stringify

Created: 5 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):