Benchmark: Test lodash difference and xor

HTML Preparation code:

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.5/lodash.min.js'></script>

Script Preparation code:

var arr1 = [];
for(let i = 0; i < 500000; i++) {
  arr1.push('' + i);
}

var arr2 = [];
for(let i = 499999; i < 999999; i++) {
  arr2.push('' + i);
}

Tests:

Spread lodash
const combo = [..._.difference(arr2, arr1), ..._.difference(arr1, arr2)];
Concat lodash
const combo = _.difference(arr2, arr1).concat(_.difference(arr1, arr2));
XOR lodash
const combo = _.xor(arr2, arr1);
ES2024 set symmetricDifference
const set1 = new Set(arr1); const set2 = new Set(arr2); const combo = set1.symmetricDifference(set2)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Spread lodash
Concat lodash
XOR lodash
ES2024 set symmetricDifference

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 12 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 135 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Spread lodash	16.9 Ops/sec
Concat lodash	19.0 Ops/sec
XOR lodash	12.1 Ops/sec
ES2024 set symmetricDifference	28.6 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 3 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

This benchmark tests various methods of calculating the symmetric difference between two arrays (`arr1` and `arr2`) using the Lodash library and native JavaScript features. The symmetric difference of two sets (or arrays) is the set of elements that are in either of the sets but not in their intersection.

### Benchmark Options Compared

1. **Spread Lodash** (`const combo = [..._.difference(arr2, arr1), ..._.difference(arr1, arr2)];`)
   - **Pros**: This approach is straightforward and leverages Lodash's `difference` method, which is optimized for performance.
   - **Cons**: The use of the spread operator can result in increased memory consumption since it creates a new array with the combined results of two difference calls.

2. **Concat Lodash** (`const combo = _.difference(arr2, arr1).concat(_.difference(arr1, arr2));`)
   - **Pros**: Concatenation may be simpler than using the spread operator and allows for chaining.
   - **Cons**: Similar to the spread approach, it makes two calls to `difference`, which may affect performance. Depending on the size of the arrays, the concatenated result could also take up significant memory.

3. **XOR Lodash** (`const combo = _.xor(arr2, arr1);`)
   - **Pros**: The `xor` method is specifically designed to compute the symmetric difference, potentially offering better performance and readability compared to the `difference` approach.
   - **Cons**: While concise, it may not be as flexible as the combination of differences for complex scenarios.

4. **ES2024 Set Symmetric Difference** (`const set1 = new Set(arr1); const set2 = new Set(arr2); const combo = set1.symmetricDifference(set2)`)
   - **Pros**: Utilizing the `Set` data structure allows for native handling of unique values and is optimized for performance in certain operations. The concept of symmetric difference can be more directly implemented with dedicated methods if supported.
   - **Cons**: As of the time this benchmark was executed, the `symmetricDifference` method may not be natively available on `Set` (it exists as a proposed feature in future versions), which requires implementing it manually or relying on third-party solutions to use it in practice.

### Library Description

**Lodash**: Lodash is a modern JavaScript utility library delivering modularity, performance, and extras. In this benchmark, it is used primarily for its array manipulation methods (`difference` and `xor`) to compute the symmetric difference between arrays. Lodash provides a functional programming style approach in JavaScript and optimizes common operations seen in day-to-day development.

### Additional Considerations

- **Performance & Complexity**: The benchmark compares execution speeds in terms of operations per second for each method. Generally, using native JavaScript can be faster due to reduced overhead from library calls, but this can vary depending on the JavaScript engine's optimizations.
- **Readability**: While performance metrics matter, developers should also consider code readability and maintainability when choosing between methods.
  
### Alternatives

- **Pure JavaScript Solutions**: You can use native array methods like `filter` and `includes` to compute symmetric differences, but it may be less efficient for large datasets.
- **Other Libraries**: Libraries like `underscore.js` or `immutable.js` provide similar functionalities, with their performance characteristics.
- **Custom Implementations**: For performance-critical applications, consider implementing a specialized function that uses native data structures optimally.

In summary, engineers should balance performance, memory usage, readability, and maintainability when choosing which implementation of symmetric difference to use.

Related benchmarks:

Test lodash difference and xor (version: 8)

Comparing performance of: Spread lodash vs Concat lodash vs XOR lodash vs ES2024 set symmetricDifference

Created: 3 months ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

Spread lodash

Concat lodash

XOR lodash

ES2024 set symmetricDifference

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 3 months ago):