Benchmark: sortAlphaNumUsingRegex() vs localeCompare('en', {numeric: true})

Script Preparation code:

var a = "FOO BAR";
var b = "foo bar";

var options = {
  numeric: true
};

var collator = new Intl.Collator('en', options);

var reA = /[^a-zA-Z]/g;
var reN = /[^0-9]/g;

function sortAlphaNum(a, b) {
  var aA = a.replace(reA, "");
  var bA = b.replace(reA, "");
  if (aA === bA) {
    var aN = parseInt(a.replace(reN, ""), 10);
    var bN = parseInt(b.replace(reN, ""), 10);
    return aN === bN ? 0 : aN > bN ? 1 : -1;
  } else {
    return aA > bA ? 1 : -1;
  }
}

Tests:

sortAlphaNum()
sortAlphaNum(a,b) === 0
Intl.Collator.compare()
collator.compare(a, b) === 0

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
sortAlphaNum()
Intl.Collator.compare()

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 years ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 124 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
sortAlphaNum()	3790939.0 Ops/sec
Intl.Collator.compare()	5827203.5 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 provided JSON and explain what's being tested.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark definition is comparing two approaches to sort strings in alphabetical order, specifically when there are numeric characters involved:

1. `sortAlphaNum(a, b) === 0`: This function uses regular expressions (`reA` and `reN`) to remove non-alphanumeric characters from the input strings before comparing them.
2. `collator.compare(a, b) === 0`: This function uses the `Intl.Collator` API, specifically with the `en` locale and `numeric: true` option, to compare the input strings.

**Options Compared**

The two approaches being compared are:

1. **Regular Expressions**: Using `reA` and `reN` regular expressions to remove non-alphanumeric characters from the input strings.
	* Pros:
		+ Flexible and can be customized for specific use cases.
		+ Can handle complex character sets.
	* Cons:
		+ May have performance overhead due to regular expression compilation and execution.
		+ Can lead to security issues if not used properly (e.g., injection attacks).
2. **Intl.Collator API**: Using the `Intl.Collator` API with the `en` locale and `numeric: true` option to compare the input strings.
	* Pros:
		+ Optimized for performance by utilizing the browser's locale settings.
		+ Built-in support for sorting and comparing strings according to language-specific rules.
	* Cons:
		+ Limited customization options compared to regular expressions.

**Library and Purpose**

The `Intl.Collator` library is a part of the JavaScript standard library, specifically designed for internationalization and localization tasks. It provides an API for comparing and sorting strings according to language-specific rules, including Unicode character handling and collation.

In this benchmark, the `Intl.Collator` library is used with the `en` locale and `numeric: true` option to compare strings in a way that prioritizes numerical values over alphabetical characters. The `collator.compare(a, b) === 0` test case is designed to evaluate the performance of using this API.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

There is no special JavaScript feature or syntax used in this benchmark, apart from the use of regular expressions and the `Intl.Collator` API.

**Other Alternatives**

Some alternative approaches for sorting strings with non-alphanumeric characters could include:

1. Using a custom string comparison function with manual character set handling.
2. Employing a third-party library or module (e.g., `string-regex`) for regular expression-based string processing.
3. Utilizing other locale-specific APIs, such as the `Intl.NumberFormat` API, to handle numerical values.

However, these alternatives may not offer the same level of performance, flexibility, or built-in support as the `Intl.Collator` API or custom regular expression implementations.

Related benchmarks:

sortAlphaNumUsingRegex() vs localeCompare('en', {numeric: true}) (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: sortAlphaNum() vs Intl.Collator.compare()

Created: 2 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

sortAlphaNum()

Intl.Collator.compare()

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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