Benchmark: _.compact vs filter(Boolean) vs filter(element => element)

HTML Preparation code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.15/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

var elements = [0, 1, false, 2, '', 3];

Tests:

_.compact
_.compact(elements);
filter(Boolean)
elements.filter(Boolean);
filter(element => element)
elements.filter(element => element);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.compact
filter(Boolean)
filter(element => element)

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 3 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 131 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.compact	40335000.0 Ops/sec
filter(Boolean)	21219852.0 Ops/sec
filter(element => element)	51841668.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the world of JavaScript microbenchmarks!

The provided JSON represents a benchmarking test on MeasureThat.net, which compares the performance of three different approaches: `_.compact` from Lodash, `filter(Boolean)`, and `filter(element => element)`.

**What is being tested?**

In this benchmark, we're testing the performance of each approach on an array of elements (`elements`). The goal is to measure how quickly each function can iterate over the array and return a new array with only the "truthy" values (i.e., non-zero numbers, non-empty strings).

**Options compared:**

1. `_.compact(elements)`: This function returns a new array containing all elements of the original array except zero, empty strings, `null`, and `undefined`.
2. `elements.filter(Boolean)`: This function uses the `filter()` method to create a new array containing only the values for which `Boolean` is true.
3. `elements.filter(element => element)`: This function uses an arrow function to filter the elements of the original array, returning only the elements that are truthy.

**Pros and Cons:**

1. `_.compact(elements)`:
	* Pros: Specifically designed for this use case, can be more efficient due to its optimized implementation.
	* Cons: Might not work as expected if the input array contains unexpected values (e.g., NaNs).
2. `elements.filter(Boolean)`:
	* Pros: Simple and readable, works well with most inputs.
	* Cons: Can be slower than `_.compact(elements)` due to the overhead of calling `Boolean()`.
3. `elements.filter(element => element)`:
	* Pros: Allows for a more flexible filtering approach, can be used in other contexts where truthiness is important.
	* Cons: Might require additional checks or assumptions about the input data.

**Library and purpose:**

The Lodash library provides the `_compact` function, which is designed to provide a concise and efficient way to remove falsey values from an array. It's a popular utility library that offers various functions for common programming tasks.

**Special JS feature/syntax:**

None mentioned in this benchmark, but it's worth noting that some other features like `let`, `const`, or `var` declarations can affect the performance of the test cases.

**Other alternatives:**

If you need to filter an array of values based on truthiness, you might consider using a simple loop instead of functional programming approaches:

```javascript
function compactArray(arr) {
    let result = [];
    for (let i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        if (arr[i] !== 0 && arr[i] !== '' && arr[i] !== null && arr[i] !== undefined) {
            result.push(arr[i]);
        }
    }
    return result;
}
```

Alternatively, you can use `Array.prototype.filter()` or `Array.prototype.reduce()` to achieve the same result.

In summary, this benchmark highlights the importance of choosing the right approach for a specific problem. By understanding the trade-offs between different methods, developers can write more efficient and effective code.

Related benchmarks:

_.compact vs filter(Boolean) vs filter(element => element) (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: _.compact vs filter(Boolean) vs filter(element => element)

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.compact

filter(Boolean)

filter(element => element)

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):