Benchmark: setAttribute vs individual styles vs cssText

HTML Preparation code:

<div id="test"></div>

Script Preparation code:

el = document.getElementById("test");

Tests:

individual styles
for (let i = 0;i < 10000;i++) { el.style.color = "red"; el.style.border = "1vmin solid red"; el.style.padding = "0.5vmin"; el.style.backgroundColor = "black"; el.style.height = "1vh"; el.style.width = "1vw" }
setAttribute
for (let i = 0;i < 10000;i++) { el.setAttribute('style',"color:red;border:1vmin solid red;padding:0.5vmin;background-color:black;height:1vh;width:1vw;"); }
cssText
for (let i = 0;i < 10000;i++) { el.style.cssText = "color:red;border:1vmin solid red;padding:0.5vmin;background-color:black;height:1vh;width:1vw;"; }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
individual styles
setAttribute
cssText

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 4 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:133.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/133.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 133 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
individual styles	8.1 Ops/sec
setAttribute	204.1 Ops/sec
cssText	25.5 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the provided benchmark and explain what is being tested.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark compares three different approaches to setting CSS styles on an HTML element:

1. `setAttribute` (using JavaScript's built-in `setAttribute` method)
2. Individual styles (`style` attribute with multiple properties set separately)
3. `cssText` (using the `style.cssText` property)

**Options Comparison**

The options being compared are:

* **`setAttribute`**: This approach uses the `setAttribute` method to set a single string containing all the CSS styles. The browser then parses this string and applies the styles.
* **Individual styles**: Each style is set separately using the `style` attribute, with each property (e.g., `color`, `border`, `padding`, etc.) set individually. This approach requires more code and may be slower due to the repeated lookups in the browser's CSS parser.
* **`cssText`**: This approach uses the `style.cssText` property to set a single string containing all the CSS styles, similar to `setAttribute`. However, it only works for the specified property (`cssText`) and does not require parsing by the browser.

**Pros and Cons**

* **`setAttribute`**:
	+ Pros: Simple and easy to implement. Works with most browsers.
	+ Cons: May be slower due to parsing overhead. Not as efficient as using individual styles or `cssText`.
* **Individual styles**:
	+ Pros: More accurate control over CSS properties. Can be faster for small sets of styles, as the browser only needs to look up each property once.
	+ Cons: Requires more code and may be slower due to repeated lookups in the browser's CSS parser.
* **`cssText`**:
	+ Pros: Simple and easy to implement. Works with most browsers that support it.
	+ Cons: Limited to setting only one property (`cssText`). May not work for all browsers or use cases.

**Library/Feature Explanation**

None of the benchmarks explicitly use any libraries, but they do rely on the following features:

* **`style` attribute**: Used to set individual CSS properties on an HTML element.
* **`setAttribute` method**: A built-in JavaScript method used to set a single string containing multiple attributes (in this case, CSS styles).
* **`cssText` property**: A proprietary property introduced in some browsers that allows setting a single string of CSS styles.

**Special JS Features/Syntax**

None are explicitly mentioned or required for these benchmarks. However, the use of `let` and arrow functions (`=>`) is present in the benchmark code.

**Alternatives**

Other alternatives to compare might include:

* Using CSS classes instead of individual style attributes
* Using a library like jQuery's `.css()` method to set styles
* Using a parser or serializer library to optimize CSS parsing
* Comparing performance with different rendering engines (e.g., Blink vs. Gecko)

Keep in mind that the choice of approach depends on the specific use case and requirements. This benchmark aims to provide a general understanding of the trade-offs involved in setting CSS styles using different methods.

Related benchmarks:

setAttribute vs individual styles vs cssText (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: individual styles vs setAttribute vs cssText

Created: 6 months ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

individual styles

setAttribute

cssText

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):