Benchmark: Math.max with apply vs spread vs reduce 10k elements

Script Preparation code:

var arr = []
for (i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {
  arr.push(Math.random() * i)
}

Tests:

Max with apply
Math.max.apply(Math, arr)
Max with spread operator
Math.max(...arr)
Reduce
arr.reduce((a, b) => Math.max(a, b))

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Max with apply
Max with spread operator
Reduce

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/120.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 120 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Max with apply	186631.5 Ops/sec
Max with spread operator	15294.1 Ops/sec
Reduce	628.7 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

**Benchmark Overview**

The provided benchmark is designed to compare the performance of three different methods for finding the maximum value in an array: `Math.max.apply()`, `Math.max()` with the spread operator (`...`), and `reduce()`.

**Test Case Breakdown**

Each test case is defined by a unique string representing the JavaScript code that will be executed. The three test cases are:

1. **Max with apply**: This test case uses the `Math.max.apply()` method, which applies the `max` function to an array of values.
2. **Max with spread operator**: This test case uses the spread operator (`...`) to pass the entire array as a single argument to the `Math.max()` function.
3. **Reduce**: This test case uses the `reduce()` method to find the maximum value in the array, by applying the `max` function to each element and accumulating the result.

**Library/Functionality Used**

In this benchmark, only built-in JavaScript functions are used:

* `Math.max()`: a global function that returns the largest of zero or more numbers.
* `apply()`: a method of the `Function` object that applies a function to an array of arguments.
* `reduce()`: a method of the Array prototype that reduces an array to a single value.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

None of the test cases use any special JavaScript features or syntax. They only rely on standard JavaScript functionality.

**Options Compared**

The benchmark is comparing three different approaches to finding the maximum value in an array:

1. **`Math.max.apply()`**: uses the `apply()` method to apply the `max` function to an array of values.
2. **`Math.max(...)` with spread operator**: uses the spread operator (`...`) to pass the entire array as a single argument to the `max` function.
3. **`reduce()`**: uses the `reduce()` method to find the maximum value in the array.

**Pros and Cons**

Each approach has its own pros and cons:

1. **`Math.max.apply()`**:
	* Pros: simple, widely supported, and efficient for small arrays.
	* Cons: can be slow for large arrays due to the overhead of the `apply()` method.
2. **`Math.max(...)` with spread operator**:
	* Pros: concise, readable, and efficient for large arrays.
	* Cons: requires a modern browser that supports the spread operator.
3. **`reduce()`**:
	* Pros: flexible, can be used for more complex reductions, and can handle arbitrary data structures.
	* Cons: can be slower than `Math.max.apply()` or `Math.max(...)` due to the overhead of creating a callback function.

**Other Alternatives**

If you needed to find the maximum value in an array, other alternatives might include:

1. **Using `Array.prototype.indexOf()` and `Array.prototype.lastIndexOf()`**: these methods can be used to find the index of the first occurrence or last occurrence of the maximum value.
2. **Using a custom sorting function with `Array.prototype.sort()`**: this method requires sorting the entire array, which may not be necessary if you only need the maximum value.

However, in general, using `Math.max.apply()`, `Math.max(...)` with spread operator, or `reduce()` is the most efficient and concise way to find the maximum value in an array.

Related benchmarks:

Math.max with apply vs spread vs reduce 10k elements (version: 0)

Compare the new ES6 spread operator with the Math.max.apply method

Comparing performance of: Max with apply vs Max with spread operator vs Reduce

Created: 2 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Max with apply

Max with spread operator

Reduce

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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