Benchmark: object emptyness big object

HTML Preparation code:

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

Script Preparation code:

/*your preparation JavaScript code goes here
To execute async code during the script preparation, wrap it as function globalMeasureThatScriptPrepareFunction, example:*/
async function globalMeasureThatScriptPrepareFunction() {
    // This function is optional, feel free to remove it.
    // await someThing();
}

let abc = {
	a: 1,
	b: 2,
	c: 'a big string',
  	d: {
      e: 123312,
      f: {
        g: 'big object'
      }
    }
}

Tests:

Object.keys
Object.keys(abc).length === 0
for in loop
for (let prop in abc) { return abc.hasOwnProperty(prop) }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Object.keys
for in loop

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/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 131 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Object.keys	74973112.0 Ops/sec
for in loop	65644712.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

### Benchmark Overview

The benchmark focuses on evaluating the performance of two different methods for checking the emptiness of a large JavaScript object. The object (`abc`) has multiple properties, including nested objects and complex values. The two methods being compared are:

1. **Using `Object.keys()`**
2. **Using a `for...in` loop combined with `hasOwnProperty()`**

### Comparison of Methods

#### Method 1: `Object.keys(abc).length === 0`
- **Description**: This method creates an array of the object's own enumerable property names using `Object.keys()`, and checks if the length of that array is zero. If it is zero, the object is considered empty.
- **Pros**:
  - Concise and straightforward to write.
  - Utilizes built-in JavaScript functions that are generally optimized for performance.
  - Clean and easier to read, especially for developers who may not be deeply familiar with JavaScript.
- **Cons**:
  - If the object has a large number of properties, `Object.keys()` creates an intermediate array, which could add overhead.
  - Does not check for properties in the object's prototype chain.

#### Method 2: `for (let prop in abc) { return abc.hasOwnProperty(prop) }`
- **Description**: This approach uses a `for...in` loop to iterate through any enumerable properties of the object. It checks each property to see if it belongs to the object itself (not inherited) using the `hasOwnProperty()` method.
- **Pros**:
  - Works for objects that may have additional inherited properties; it checks only the properties that belong to the object itself.
  - Directly iterates over properties without creating an intermediate array.
- **Cons**:
  - The loop could introduce more complexity and is less efficient than `Object.keys()` for determining whether an object is empty since it will run until it finds the first property or completes the loop.
  - The return statement in the loop can be less intuitive for understanding the purpose of the code, especially for newcomers.

### Benchmark Results

From the benchmark results, we have the following executions per second for each method on a Mac OS X environment using Chrome 131:

1. **Object.keys**: 74,973,112 executions per second
2. **for...in loop**: 65,644,712 executions per second

### Other Alternatives

1. **Using `JSON.stringify()`**:
   - One can convert the object to a JSON string and check if it equals `"{}"`. However, this approach typically has the overhead of serialization and might not be as performant as the methods above.
  
```javascript
const isEmpty = (obj) => JSON.stringify(obj) === '{}';
```

2. **Using `Reflect.ownKeys()`**:
   - Similar to `Object.keys()`, but retrieves both enumerable and non-enumerable property names. You would then check the length to see if it's zero.
   
```javascript
const isEmpty = (obj) => Reflect.ownKeys(obj).length === 0;
```

### Conclusion

When considering which method to use for checking object emptiness, developers should weigh the performance measured in the benchmarks, readability of the code, and specific use cases in their applications. While `Object.keys()` tends to be faster and easier to read, the `for...in` loop with `hasOwnProperty()` offers a solid alternative, especially when it's necessary to strictly ensure that no inherited properties are counted. Understanding these options helps in making informed decisions when optimizing JavaScript code.

Related benchmarks:

object emptyness big object (version: 1)

test object emptyness with a big object

Comparing performance of: Object.keys vs for in loop

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Object.keys

for in loop

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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