Benchmark: innerhtml vs removechild

HTML Preparation code:

<select id="container"></select>

Script Preparation code:

var node = document.getElementById('container');

for(var i = 0; i < 300; i++) {
  var option = document.createElement('option');
  option.value = "Some text"
  node.appendChild(option);
}

Tests:

innerHTML
var node = document.getElementById('container'); node.innerHTML = '';
removeChild
var node = document.getElementById('container'); while(node.firstChild) node.removeChild(node.firstChild)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
innerHTML
removeChild

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

**Overview of the Benchmark**

The provided JSON represents a JavaScript microbenchmark test case on MeasureThat.net. The test compares two approaches: clearing the `innerHTML` property and removing child nodes from a DOM element.

**Test Case 1: Clearing `innerHTML`**

* **Script Preparation Code**: This code creates an empty `<select>` element with the id "container" and then appends 300 child elements to it, each with a value of "Some text".
* **Test Name**: `innerHTML`
* **Benchmark Definition**: The script sets the `innerHTML` property of the container element to an empty string.

**Test Case 2: Removing Child Nodes**

* **Script Preparation Code**: This code creates an empty `<select>` element with the id "container" and then appends 300 child elements to it, each with a value of "Some text".
* **Test Name**: `removeChild`
* **Benchmark Definition**: The script uses a `while` loop to remove each child node from the container element.

**Comparison**

The two test cases aim to compare the performance of clearing the `innerHTML` property versus removing individual child nodes. Both approaches have their pros and cons:

* **Clearing `innerHTML`**:
	+ Pros: Simple and efficient, as it only involves assigning a new string value to the `innerHTML` property.
	+ Cons: Can be slow for large datasets if not implemented correctly, as it may require creating a new DOM tree or using a lot of memory.
* **Removing Child Nodes**:
	+ Pros: More flexible and allows for more control over the removal process, which can be beneficial in certain scenarios.
	+ Cons: Generally slower than clearing `innerHTML`, especially for large datasets, due to the overhead of iterating through child nodes.

**Library and Special JS Features**

Neither test case uses any libraries or special JavaScript features. The script simply utilizes standard DOM methods and language constructs.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other approaches to clear the container element could include:

* Using a `DOMParser` to create a new document, parse the HTML string, and then append it to the original element.
* Using a library like jQuery's `.empty()` method or a custom implementation using `NodeList.prototype.item()`.
* Recursively traversing the DOM tree and removing child nodes manually.

However, these alternatives are likely to be slower than the two test cases provided, as they introduce additional overhead due to parsing, serialization, or manual iteration through the DOM tree.

Related benchmarks:

innerhtml vs removechild (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: innerHTML vs removeChild

Created: 8 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

innerHTML

removeChild

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

No previous run results

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