Benchmark: Underscore.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/underscore@1.13.4/underscore-umd-min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

window.foo = {"array": ['cat', 'dog', 'bird', {"foo": "bar"}]};
window.bar = {"array": ['cat', 'dog', 'bird', {"foo": "bar"}]};

Tests:

_.isEqual
_.isEqual(window.foo, window.bar)
JSON.stringify
JSON.stringify(window.foo) === JSON.stringify(window.bar);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual
JSON.stringify

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

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Let's break down the benchmark and explain what's being tested.

**Benchmark Purpose**

The benchmark compares the performance of two approaches to check for equality between two objects: using Underscore.js library's `isEqual` function versus using `JSON.stringify`. The test is focused on shallow arrays of strings, specifically when comparing a string array with another identical string array that may contain nested objects.

**Options Compared**

Two options are being compared:

1. **Underscore.js `isEqual`**: A library function designed to recursively compare two values for equality.
2. **`JSON.stringify` Equality Comparison**: A simple approach using the `===` operator on the stringified versions of both objects.

**Pros and Cons of Each Approach**

### Underscore.js `isEqual`

Pros:

* Can handle complex data structures, including nested objects and arrays.
* Provides a way to compare values in a more expressive way than a simple `===` check.

Cons:

* May be slower due to the overhead of recursive function calls.
* Can lead to unexpected results if not used carefully (e.g., comparing objects with different property orders).

### `JSON.stringify` Equality Comparison

Pros:

* Fast and efficient, as it relies on the built-in stringification process.
* Simple and easy to understand.

Cons:

* Only works for shallow arrays or objects. For nested data structures, this approach will fail because `JSON.stringify` only serializes top-level properties.
* Requires careful handling of edge cases (e.g., comparing strings with non-ASCII characters).

**Library: Underscore.js**

Underscore.js is a popular JavaScript utility library that provides a set of functional programming helpers. The `isEqual` function is one of its most useful tools, allowing developers to compare two values for equality in a way that's both expressive and flexible.

In this benchmark, the use of Underscore.js's `isEqual` function is likely chosen because it can handle complex data structures, such as nested objects and arrays, which might be present in real-world JavaScript applications. However, its slower performance compared to the `JSON.stringify` approach may impact the results of this specific benchmark.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

None mentioned in this benchmark. Both approaches rely on standard JavaScript language features and do not require any special syntax or features beyond what's already discussed.

**Other Alternatives**

If you're interested in exploring alternative approaches, consider the following options:

1. **Lodash's `isEqual`**: Similar to Underscore.js's `isEqual`, but part of the larger Lodash library.
2. **JSON Schema**: While not directly related to equality comparison, JSON Schema provides a way to validate and compare JSON data against a schema.
3. **Custom implementation using JavaScript's built-in `==` or `===` operators**: This approach would require careful handling of edge cases, such as comparing strings with non-ASCII characters.

Keep in mind that these alternatives may not provide the same level of expressiveness or performance as Underscore.js's `isEqual`, but can be useful in specific contexts.

Related benchmarks:

Underscore.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs JSON.stringify

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

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):