Benchmark: JS BigInt To Uint8Array

HTML Preparation code:

<!--your preparation HTML code goes here-->

Script Preparation code:

function bigIntToBigEndianBytesLoop(value) {
    const hex = value.toString(16).padStart(8 * 2, '0');
    const bytes = new Uint8Array(8);
    for (let i = 0; i < 8; i++) {
        bytes[i] = parseInt(hex.slice(i * 2, i * 2 + 2), 16);
    }
    return bytes;
}

function bigIntToBigEndianBytesDataView(value) {
    const buf = new ArrayBuffer(8);
    const view = new DataView(buf);

    view.setBigUint64(0, value);
    return new Uint8Array(buf);
}

Tests:

for-loop
bigIntToBigEndianBytesLoop(2382975329865n);
dataview
bigIntToBigEndianBytesDataView(2382975329865n);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
for-loop
dataview

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:100.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/100.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 100 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

for-loop

4.8M/s

dataview

2.6M/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ for-loop	4,785,396 Ops/sec
dataview	2,624,675 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

This benchmark compares two methods of converting a JavaScript `BigInt` value to a `Uint8Array`, which is a typed array that represents an array of 8-bit unsigned integers. The two methods assessed are:

1. **For-loop Method (bigIntToBigEndianBytesLoop)**: 
   - This approach manually converts a `BigInt` to its hexadecimal representation, and then iterates over the hexadecimal string in chunks, converting each chunk into an integer to fill a `Uint8Array`. 
   - **Pros**:
     - Provides a straightforward method for understanding how to manipulate and convert numbers in JavaScript.
     - Directly shows the conversion process, making it more transparent for educational purposes.
   - **Cons**:
     - Typically inefficient compared to built-in methods because it involves string manipulation and parsing through multiple steps. 
     - May incur higher computational overhead due to the explicit conversion process, especially for larger numbers.

2. **DataView Method (bigIntToBigEndianBytesDataView)**: 
   - This method utilizes the `DataView` object to directly write the `BigInt` to an `ArrayBuffer` and subsequently returns a `Uint8Array` view of that buffer.
   - **Pros**:
     - More efficient as it directly manipulates binary data without the need for string conversion, resulting in faster execution times.
     - Easier to read and maintain, as it abstracts away the lower-level details of byte representation.
   - **Cons**:
     - May be less intuitive for those unfamiliar with the `DataView` API and binary data handling in JavaScript.
     - Slightly less flexible in terms of custom data manipulation compared to manual iterations.

### Benchmark Results
- The results show the number of executions per second for each method:
   - **DataView Method**: 1,443,380 executions/second
   - **For-loop Method**: 1,402,724 executions/second
   - While both methods exhibit high performance, the DataView method is faster than the for-loop method.

### Library and Features
- **DataView**: This is a built-in JavaScript object that enables the reading and writing of multi-byte values to and from an `ArrayBuffer`. It allows for the manipulation of binary data in a platform-independent way.

### Considerations and Alternatives
- The benchmark demonstrates specific methods for converting `BigInt` to a binary representation, and while these two are compared, there are other potential alternatives:
  - **Typed Arrays**: Other typed arrays, like `Uint16Array` or `Uint32Array`, could also be utilized based on the specific requirements of the data representation.
  - **Buffer Libraries**: For more complex or extensive operations, libraries like `Buffer` (available in Node.js) or third-party libraries such as `big-integer` could also be considered, particularly in server-side or larger-scale applications.
  - **Endianness**: These methods assume big-endian order. One must consider endianness when working across systems or transmitting data, as the order of byte storage can significantly impact data interpretation.
  
### Conclusion
In summary, this benchmark elucidates the efficiency of different approaches to converting `BigInt` to `Uint8Array` with the performance implications in mind. The DataView method offers better performance and efficiency, particularly important for large data processing or performance-sensitive applications. However, understanding both methods enhances a developer's ability to manipulate binary data in JavaScript.

JS BigInt To Uint8Array (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: `for-loop vs dataview`

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Go to the latest result

for-loop

dataview

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated one year ago):

JS BigInt To Uint8Array (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: for-loop vs dataview

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Go to the latest result

for-loop

dataview

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated one year ago):

Related benchmarks

Comparing performance of: `for-loop vs dataview`