Benchmark: jQuery by className vs Document.getElementsByClassName

HTML Preparation code:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jQuery/jquery-3.1.0.min.js"></script>
<div id="testElement"></div>

Tests:

jQuery
var el = $(".testElement")[0]; var className = el.className;
Vanilla JS
var el = document.getElementsByClassName('testElement'); var className = el.className;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
jQuery
Vanilla JS

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:132.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/132.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 132 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
jQuery	0.0 Ops/sec
Vanilla JS	4032639.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the explanation.

**Benchmark Description:**

The benchmark tests the speed of getting an HTML element by its class name using two different approaches:

1. **jQuery**: Using the jQuery library to select the element and then accessing its `className` property.
2. **Vanilla JS (Document.getElementsByClassName)**: Using a native JavaScript method (`getElementsByClassName`) provided by the Document object to select the element and then accessing its `className` property.

**Test Case Description:**

Each test case consists of two parts:

1. A script that sets up the environment for the test, in this case, selecting an HTML element with the class name "testElement" using either jQuery or the native JavaScript method.
2. A statement that accesses the `className` property of the selected element.

**Library and Purpose:**

The benchmark uses **jQuery**, a popular JavaScript library that simplifies DOM manipulation and event handling. In this case, jQuery is used to select an HTML element by its class name using the `$()` method, which is equivalent to calling `document.querySelector()` or `document.querySelectorAll()` in native JavaScript.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax:**

None in this specific benchmark.

**Pros/Cons of Different Approaches:**

1. **jQuery**:
	* Pros:
		+ Easier to use and more concise code.
		+ Supports older browsers that don't have the latest JavaScript features.
	* Cons:
		+ Additional library overhead, which can impact performance in some cases.
		+ May not be suitable for very large or complex applications.
2. **Vanilla JS (Document.getElementsByClassName)**:
	* Pros:
		+ Native implementation, no additional library overhead.
		+ Suitable for large-scale applications where performance is critical.
	* Cons:
		+ Requires more verbose code compared to jQuery.
		+ May not be compatible with older browsers that don't support the latest JavaScript features.

**Other Alternatives:**

Other alternatives to achieve this benchmark include:

1. **Document.querySelector()**: A native JavaScript method that selects an element by its CSS selector, including class names.
2. **document.querySelectorAll()**: A native JavaScript method that returns a NodeList of elements matching a given CSS selector, including class names.
3. **Modern JavaScript features** (e.g., `querySelector` and `querySelectorAll`): If you're targeting modern browsers only, you can use these more efficient methods to select elements.

Keep in mind that the best approach depends on your specific requirements, such as browser support, code maintainability, and performance needs.

Related benchmarks:

jQuery by className vs Document.getElementsByClassName (version: 0)

Comparing speed of getting element by class name with jQuery vs Vanilla JS

Comparing performance of: jQuery vs Vanilla JS

Created: 8 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

jQuery

Vanilla JS

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):