Benchmark: Math.pow() vs exponentiation operator

Script Preparation code:

var a = Math.random();
var b = Math.random();

Tests:

Math.pow()
Math.pow(a, b);
Exponentiation operator
a ** b;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Math.pow()
Exponentiation operator

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 23 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/148.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 148 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Math.pow()	262221744.0 Ops/sec
Exponentiation operator	262990128.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the explanation.

**What is being tested?**

The benchmark tests two different ways to calculate the power of a number in JavaScript: `Math.pow()` and the exponentiation operator (`**`).

**What options are compared?**

Two options are being compared:

1. **Math.pow()**: This method takes two arguments, the base and the exponent, and returns their power.
2. **Exponentiation operator (**)**: This is a shorthand way to calculate the power of a number using an operator.

**Pros/Cons of each approach:**

* `Math.pow()`:
	+ Pros: More explicit and readable code, well-documented method.
	+ Cons: Slightly slower due to the overhead of calling a function.
* Exponentiation operator (`**`):
	+ Pros: Concise and faster execution, often preferred for performance-critical code.
	+ Cons: Less readable and maintainable code, requires knowledge of this specific syntax.

**Library/Feature used:**

None. This benchmark only uses built-in JavaScript functionality.

**Special JS feature or syntax:**

The exponentiation operator (`**`) is a special feature in JavaScript that allows you to calculate the power of a number using an operator. It's equivalent to calling `Math.pow()` but with a more concise and expressive syntax.

**Other alternatives:**

If performance-critical code requires calculating powers, consider using libraries like NumJS or mathjs, which provide optimized functions for mathematical operations. Alternatively, if you need to perform multiple calculations, you can use memoization techniques to cache intermediate results and improve overall performance.

That's a wrap!

Related benchmarks:

Math.pow() vs exponentiation operator (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: Math.pow() vs Exponentiation operator

Created: 4 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Math.pow()

Exponentiation operator

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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