Benchmark: isEmpty vs .length benchmark

isEmpty vs .length benchmark (version: 0)

isEmpty empty array vs length empty array vs isEmpty array of strings vs length array of strings vs isEmpty array of objects vs length array of objects

Comparing performance of: isEmpty empty array vs .length empty array vs isEmpty string array vs .length string array vs isEmpty object array vs .length object array

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.21/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

// empty array
window.foo1 = [];

// array of strings
window.foo2 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'];

// array of objects
window.foo3 = [{ a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } }, { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } }, { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } }];

Tests:

isEmpty empty array
_.isEmpty(window.foo1);
.length empty array
window.foo1.length === 0;
isEmpty string array
_.isEmpty(window.foo2);
.length string array
window.foo2.length === 0;
isEmpty object array
_.isEmpty(window.foo3);
.length object array
window.foo3.length === 0;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
isEmpty empty array
.length empty array
isEmpty string array
.length string array
isEmpty object array
.length object array

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:150.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/150.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 150 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
isEmpty empty array	5200296.0 Ops/sec
.length empty array	8811358.0 Ops/sec
isEmpty string array	4914551.5 Ops/sec
.length string array	8658277.0 Ops/sec
isEmpty object array	5139824.0 Ops/sec
.length object array	8499527.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The provided JSON represents a JavaScript microbenchmark test case on the MeasureThat.net website. The benchmark tests various approaches to determine whether an array or object is empty.

**Options being compared:**

1. `_.isEmpty()` (Lodash's `isEmpty` function)
2. `length === 0`
3. Using the `empty` property of a string (not applicable for objects)

**Pros and cons of each approach:**

1. `_.isEmpty()`: This method is concise and efficient, as it only checks if the array or object has a certain number of properties. However, its performance may vary depending on the implementation.
2. `length === 0`: This method is simple and straightforward but can be slower due to the unnecessary comparison.

**Other considerations:**

* When using `_.isEmpty()`, the benchmark assumes that Lodash's `isEmpty` function will work correctly for various data types, including arrays, objects, and strings. This might not always be the case, as some implementations may have edge cases or optimizations.
* For object comparison, the benchmark uses the `length` property to determine emptiness. However, this approach may not cover all scenarios, such as when using getters or computed properties.

**Library:**

Lodash (version 4.17.21) is used in this benchmark. Lodash provides a set of utility functions for various tasks, including array and object manipulation. The `isEmpty` function checks if an object has any own enumerable properties.

**Special JS features/syntax:**

None mentioned explicitly, but it's worth noting that JavaScript's `typeof` operator can be useful when checking the type of an expression. However, in this case, no special syntax is used to take advantage of this feature.

**Benchmark result interpretation:**

The benchmark results show that Firefox 110 performs relatively well for all test cases. The order of results from fastest to slowest is:

1. `_.length object array`
2. `.length string array`
3. `_.isEmpty string array`
4. `.length empty array`
5. `_.isEmpty object array`
6. `_.isEmpty empty array`

Keep in mind that the actual performance differences might be negligible, and this benchmark is intended to demonstrate different approaches rather than measure absolute performance.

**Other alternatives:**

To create similar benchmarks, you can use other JavaScript testing frameworks or libraries, such as:

1. Microbenchmark (a popular library for microbenchmarking)
2. Benchmark.js (another widely used microbenchmarking library)
3. Google's benchmark (a simple and efficient benchmarking library)

When creating a new benchmark, consider using a consistent approach to setup and test your code, and choose the most suitable testing framework or library based on your needs and goals.

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