Benchmark: function.call() vs function()

Script Preparation code:

function hi(user) {
  return `hi, ${user}!`;
};

Tests:

function.call
hi.call(hi, 'user');
function
hi('user');

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
function.call
function

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 years ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/121.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 121 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
function.call	13453996.0 Ops/sec
function	30595668.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

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

**Benchmark Definition**

The provided JSON represents a JavaScript microbenchmark named "function.call() vs function()" on the MeasureThat.net website. The benchmark tests two different approaches to calling a function: using `function()` and using `function.call()`. This allows users to compare the performance of these two methods.

**Script Preparation Code**

The script preparation code is:
```javascript
function hi(user) {
  return `hi, ${user}!`;
}
```
This defines a simple JavaScript function named `hi` that takes a single argument `user` and returns a greeting message. The function is not called anywhere in the provided code; it's only used to create two different benchmark test cases.

**Html Preparation Code**

There is no HTML preparation code provided, which means the benchmark does not involve any DOM-related operations or rendering.

**Test Cases**

The benchmark consists of two individual test cases:

1. **function.call**
```javascript
hi.call(hi, 'user');
```
This test case calls the `hi` function using the `call()` method, passing `this` as the first argument and `'user'` as the second argument.

2. **function**
```javascript
hi('user');
```
This test case simply calls the `hi` function with a hardcoded string argument `'user'`.

**Library and Purpose**

There is no external library used in this benchmark. However, it's worth noting that the `call()` method is an instance method of functions in JavaScript, which allows it to be called on any object that has the function as its prototype.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

The benchmark does not explicitly use any special JavaScript features or syntax beyond what is standard for the language. However, it's worth noting that the `call()` method is a feature introduced in ECMAScript 5 (ES5), so this benchmark is likely designed to test performance on modern browsers that support ES5 and later.

**Pros and Cons of Approaches**

Here are some pros and cons of using `function.call()` versus `function()`:

*   **Function Call**: 
    *   Pros: This method is often more explicit and can be useful for controlling the context in which a function is executed. It also allows for easier testing of functions that depend on their context.
    *   Cons: In this specific benchmark, using `call()` does not appear to provide any performance benefits over simply calling the function without it.
*   **Function**:
    *   Pros: This method is often simpler and more readable than using `call()`, as it avoids the need for explicit context management. It's also a very common way to call functions in JavaScript, especially in simple cases like this one.
    *   Cons: In certain situations, such as when you want to pass custom values for `this` or when working with legacy code that assumes `this` will be available by default, using `function()` might not be the best choice.

**Alternatives**

If you wanted to create a similar benchmark but testing other aspects of JavaScript functions, here are some alternatives:

*   Test the performance of functions with different numbers of arguments.
*   Compare the performance of different types of loops (e.g., for loops vs. while loops).
*   Investigate how the execution speed of functions changes as their complexity increases.

Keep in mind that these would require additional modifications to the benchmark's script preparation code and test cases, but they could provide valuable insights into various aspects of JavaScript function performance.

Related benchmarks:

function.call() vs function() (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: function.call vs function

Created: 3 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

function.call

function

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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