Benchmark: string start with method startsWith Vs. indexOf Vs. String Array

Script Preparation code:

window.testStr = 'mt-asjhbfdjasasdkbfas';
window.counter = 0;
window.testTimes = 1e5;

Tests:

startsWith
window.counter = 0; for (let index = 0; index < testTimes; index++) { if (testStr.startsWith('mt-')) { counter++; } }
indexOf
window.counter = 0; for (let index = 0; index < testTimes; index++) { if (testStr.indexOf('mt-') === 0) { counter++; } }
String Array
window.counter = 0; for (let index = 0; index < testTimes; index++) { if (testStr[0] === 'm' && testStr[1] === 't' && testStr[2] === '-') { counter++; } }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
startsWith
indexOf
String Array

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/134.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/134.0.0.0

Browser/OS: Chrome 134 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
startsWith	171.6 Ops/sec
indexOf	157.7 Ops/sec
String Array	166.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The provided benchmark evaluates the performance of three different methods for checking if a string starts with a specific substring ("mt-"). The methods compared are:

1. **Using `startsWith()` method**: 
   - **Code**: `if (testStr.startsWith('mt-'))`
   - **Pros**: 
     - Readable and semantically clear for the task of checking prefixes.
     - Built-in method in JavaScript, optimized for this specific operation.
   - **Cons**: 
     - May have performance overhead when compared with basic string indexing, depending on implementation details across different engines.

2. **Using `indexOf()` method**: 
   - **Code**: `if (testStr.indexOf('mt-') === 0)`
   - **Pros**: 
     - Also provides clear functionality for finding substrings.
     - Works in older browsers that might not support `startsWith()`.
   - **Cons**: 
     - Less efficient for prefix checks since it scans through the string to find the index (in this case, `0`).
     - Not as semantically clear as `startsWith()` for checking if a string starts with a specific substring.

3. **Using direct character comparison**:
   - **Code**: `if (testStr[0] === 'm' && testStr[1] === 't' && testStr[2] === '-')`
   - **Pros**: 
     - Can be the fastest method since it directly accesses and compares characters without any method call overhead.
     - Minimal overhead, as it does not involve function calls or searching through a substring.
   - **Cons**: 
     - Less readable and maintainable as it relies on hard-coded position checks.
     - Not scalable for longer prefixes or varying lengths.

### Performance Results
In the benchmark results, the performance in terms of executions per second is as follows:

1. **`startsWith()`**: 171.58 executions per second
2. **Direct character comparison**: 165.96 executions per second
3. **`indexOf()`**: 157.69 executions per second

### Considerations

- **Readability vs. Performance**: The trade-off between using built-in methods for code clarity and directly accessing string characters for performance is a critical consideration. For large applications or performance-critical code, the direct method may be preferable, but for general use, `startsWith()` provides better readability.
  
- **Browser Compatibility**: If developing for environments requiring compatibility with older browsers, `indexOf()` offers broader support, whereas `startsWith()` requires modern JavaScript engines.

- **Maintainability**: The methods that leverage built-in string functions are usually preferred in collaborative environments where code must be readable for future developers.

### Alternatives
Other alternatives to check if a string starts with a specific substring could include:

- **Regular Expressions**: Using regex (e.g., `/^mt-/`) can also check for prefixes, providing a flexible option (although generally slower than the above methods).
- **Third-party libraries**: Libraries like Lodash provide utility functions for string operations, but they introduce weight to your project.

In summary, each method of checking a prefix has its scenarios where it shines; performance considerations need to be weighed against usability and maintainability in development environments.

Related benchmarks:

string start with method startsWith Vs. indexOf Vs. String Array (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: startsWith vs indexOf vs String Array

Created: one year ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

startsWith

indexOf

String Array

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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