Benchmark: innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove()

HTML Preparation code:

<div id="container"></div>

Script Preparation code:

var node = document.getElementById('container');

for(var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) node.appendChild(document.createElement('div'));

Tests:

innerHTML
var node = document.getElementById('container'); node.innerHTML = '';
element.firstChild.remove()
var node = document.getElementById('container'); while (node.firstChild) { node.firstChild.remove() }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
innerHTML
element.firstChild.remove()

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one year ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:136.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/136.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 136 on Ubuntu

View result in a separate tab

element.firstChild.remove()

7.4M/s

innerHTML

5.0M/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ element.firstChild.remove()	7,385,294 Ops/sec
innerHTML	4,986,938 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the world of JavaScript microbenchmarks on MeasureThat.net.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark measures the performance difference between two approaches: setting the `innerHTML` property of an HTML element versus removing all child nodes using `element.firstChild.remove()`.

**Options Compared**

There are two options being compared:

1. **innerHTML**: Setting the `innerHTML` property of an HTML element to an empty string.
2. **element.firstChild.remove()**: Removing all child nodes from an element by iterating over its first child node and calling `remove()` on each one until no more child nodes exist.

**Pros and Cons**

### InnerHTML

Pros:

* Simple and straightforward approach
* Fast and efficient, as it only requires a single DOM operation to update the element's content

Cons:

* Can be slower than removing all child nodes if the element has many children, as this can lead to multiple DOM operations being performed in sequence.
* May not be suitable for large datasets or complex elements, as it can cause memory issues and slow down the browser.

### Element.firstChild.remove()

Pros:

* More efficient for large datasets or complex elements, as it avoids unnecessary DOM operations
* Can help prevent memory issues by removing all child nodes at once

Cons:

* More complicated and slower approach due to the need to iterate over child nodes and call `remove()` on each one.
* May be slower than setting `innerHTML` if the element has many children, but still faster for large datasets or complex elements.

**Library**

None is explicitly mentioned in this benchmark definition. However, both approaches use native JavaScript DOM APIs.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

None are used in this benchmark definition.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other possible approaches to compare with `innerHTML` and `element.firstChild.remove()` might include:

* Using a template engine or string interpolation library like Handlebars or Lit
* Implementing custom node removal logic using JavaScript arrays or other data structures
* Comparing the performance of different DOM manipulation APIs, such as `appendChild`, `insertBefore`, or `removeChild`
* Using benchmarking libraries like WebPageTest or BenchmarkJS to compare performance across multiple browsers and platforms

**Additional Considerations**

When writing benchmarks like this one, consider the following:

* Use a consistent set of test cases and input data to ensure fair comparisons.
* Ensure that all benchmarks are run on the same platform, browser version, and network conditions to minimize variations.
* Use a robust timing mechanism to measure execution time accurately.
* Consider including additional metrics, such as memory usage or CPU utilization, to get a more comprehensive understanding of performance.

By considering these factors, you can write reliable and informative benchmarks like this one on MeasureThat.net.

innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove() (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: `innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove()`

Created: 4 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

innerHTML

element.firstChild.remove()

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove() (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove()

Created: 4 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

innerHTML

element.firstChild.remove()

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

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Comparing performance of: `innerHTML vs element.firstChild.remove()`