Benchmark: Javascript Split vs Regex

Script Preparation code:

var testString = "testing\nNewlines\nBleh"

Tests:

Splitting
var [value1, value2, value3] = testString.split("\n");
Regex
var regex = /.+((?=\n)|$)/g var [value1, value2, value3] = testString.match(regex);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Splitting
Regex

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 6 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 140 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Splitting	39726880.0 Ops/sec
Regex	10602766.0 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 explain what's being tested.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark is designed to compare the performance of two approaches: splitting a string using the `split()` method, and using regular expressions (regex) to achieve the same result. The goal is to determine which approach is faster for this specific use case.

**Options Compared**

There are two options being compared:

1. **Split() Method**: This approach uses the `split()` method to split the input string into an array of substrings, using `\n` as the delimiter.
2. **Regex Approach**: This approach uses a regular expression (`/.+((?=\\n)|$)/g`) to match one or more characters (including newlines) and then captures the matched substring.

**Pros and Cons**

**Split() Method:**

Pros:

* Simple and straightforward
* Easy to understand and implement

Cons:

* May not work correctly if the input string contains other types of newline characters (e.g., `\r\n`)
* Requires an explicit delimiter (`\n` in this case)

**Regex Approach:**

Pros:

* More flexible, as it can handle various types of newlines
* Can be used to extract substrings without needing a specific delimiter

Cons:

* More complex and harder to understand for beginners
* May have performance overhead due to the regex engine's processing time

**Other Considerations**

The benchmark also considers the device platform (Desktop), operating system (Linux), and the browser version (Firefox 115) used by the test users. These factors can impact the performance results, as different browsers may handle JavaScript execution differently.

**Library and Special JS Feature**

There is no specific library mentioned in this benchmark. However, it's worth noting that some browsers may have built-in optimizations or features that could affect the results, such as:

* `String.prototype.split()`: Some browsers may use a caching mechanism to store the result of previous splits, which can improve performance.
* `RegExp` objects: Browsers may optimize RegExp objects using techniques like caching or precompilation.

**Benchmark Preparation Code**

The provided script preparation code is:
```javascript
var testString = "testing\nNewlines\nBleh";
```
This code creates a sample input string with multiple newlines. The script also defines two variables, `value1`, `value2`, and `value3`, which will store the results of the benchmark.

**Alternatives**

If you want to run this benchmark on your own machine, you can use the following alternatives:

* MeasureThat.net: As mentioned earlier, this is a dedicated benchmarking platform for JavaScript microbenchmarks.
* Benchmarking libraries likeBenchmark.js or js-benchmark: These libraries provide a simple way to write and execute benchmarks, and can be used with various test cases.
* Native browser debugging tools: Some browsers have built-in debugging tools that allow you to run performance tests and analyze results.

Keep in mind that running a benchmark on your own machine may not produce identical results as the ones reported by MeasureThat.net, which is a cloud-based service.

Related benchmarks:

Javascript Split vs Regex (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: Splitting vs Regex

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Splitting

Regex

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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