Benchmark: Math.max() vs Array.reduce(Math.max)

Script Preparation code:

var values = new Array(5000);

for (let i = 0; i < values.length; ++i) {
    values[i] = i % 20;
}

Tests:

Math.max
return Math.max(...values);
Reduce
return values.reduce((accumulator, currentValue) => Math.max(accumulator, currentValue), 0);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Math.max
Reduce

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/125.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 125 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Math.max	133207.9 Ops/sec
Reduce	3073.5 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 data and explain what's being tested, compared, and analyzed.

**What is being tested?**

The test case measures the performance difference between two approaches:

1. `Math.max()` function
2. `Array.prototype.reduce()` method with a callback function that always returns `Math.max()`

**Options compared:**

Two options are being compared:

A) Using the built-in `Math.max()` function
B) Using the `Array.prototype.reduce()` method with a custom callback function that always returns `Math.max()`

**Pros and Cons of each approach:**

1. **`Math.max()`**:
	* Pros: Simple, efficient, and widely supported.
	* Cons: Can be slower for large arrays due to overhead from JavaScript's built-in functions.
2. **`Array.prototype.reduce()` with custom callback**:
	* Pros: Allows for more control over the reduction process, can be faster for large arrays since it doesn't involve an additional function call.
	* Cons: Requires a custom callback function that always returns `Math.max()`, which might be less readable and maintainable.

The test results suggest that using `Array.prototype.reduce()` with a custom callback is generally faster than using the built-in `Math.max()` function, especially for large arrays like the one in this benchmark (5000 elements).

**Library usage:**

None of the provided code uses any external libraries. The `Math` object and `Array` prototype are part of the JavaScript standard library.

**Special JS features or syntax:**

No special JavaScript features or syntax are being used in this test case. It's purely functional programming with a focus on performance comparison.

**Alternative approaches:**

Other alternatives to compare performance include:

* Using `Math.min()` instead of `Math.max()`
* Using a different reduction algorithm, such as using `Array.prototype.forEach()` and accumulating the maximum values manually
* Comparing the performance of other languages or implementations (e.g., Node.js, TypeScript)
* Using different array sizes or distributions to test the performance under various scenarios

Related benchmarks:

Math.max() vs Array.reduce(Math.max) (version: 0)

Compare speed of Math.max() vs Array.reduce(Math.max).

Comparing performance of: Math.max vs Reduce

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Math.max

Reduce

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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