Benchmark: Boolean valueOf vs !! test

Script Preparation code:

var test = true;

Tests:

Double negation
!!test
Boolean
Boolean(test)
Boolean valueOf
Boolean(test).valueOf()

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Double negation
Boolean
Boolean valueOf

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one month ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/134.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 134 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Double negation	260904352.0 Ops/sec
Boolean	258958320.0 Ops/sec
Boolean valueOf	187475264.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark defined in the provided JSON tests different methods of converting a variable to a Boolean value in JavaScript. The variable being tested is set to `true`, represented as `var test = true;`. There are three main test cases compared in this benchmark:

1. **Double Negation (`!!test`)**:
   - **Description**: This approach uses the double negation operator (`!!`) to convert a value to its Boolean equivalent. The first negation (`!test`) converts the truthy value to `false`, and the second negation (`!!test`) converts it back to `true`.
   - **Performance**: This method shows the highest execution rate in the benchmark, with approximately 260 million executions per second.
   - **Pros**: It is concise and commonly used in JavaScript for quick and effective coercion of variables to Boolean values.
   - **Cons**: While it may be straightforward for experienced JavaScript developers, newcomers may find the syntax less intuitive at first glance.

2. **Boolean Constructor (`Boolean(test)`)**:
   - **Description**: This method uses the `Boolean` constructor to explicitly convert the value to a Boolean. It takes the value as its argument and returns `true` or `false` accordingly.
   - **Performance**: With an execution rate of about 258 million per second, this approach is slightly slower than the double negation.
   - **Pros**: This method is clear and readable, making it easy for developers to understand that a conversion is taking place.
   - **Cons**: It involves a function call, which can add slightly more overhead compared to the direct syntax of the double negation.

3. **Boolean valueOf Method (`Boolean(test).valueOf()`)**:
   - **Description**: This approach first uses the `Boolean` constructor to convert the value and then calls the `valueOf` method to retrieve the primitive Boolean value.
   - **Performance**: This method has the lowest execution rate in the benchmark at around 187 million executions per second.
   - **Pros**: The use of `valueOf` may be clearer in the context of object-oriented programming, emphasizing that we are working with an object representation of a Boolean.
   - **Cons**: This method is the least efficient due to the additional function call to both create a Boolean object and retrieve the primitive value. It's generally unnecessary in good practice when simple coercion suffices.

### Other Considerations:
- **Performance**: While all methods produce the same logical result, performance might be a consideration in scenarios where such conversions are frequent or happen in tight loops. Based on the benchmark, developers might prefer double negation for optimal performance.
  
- **Readability vs. Efficiency**: It’s often a balancing act between choosing code that executes quickly and code that is easy to understand. In collaborative projects, readability might be prioritized, especially for teams with varying levels of JavaScript expertise.

### Alternatives:
Beyond the methods tested, programmers can also choose other approaches to manage truthy and falsy values in JavaScript:
- **Using a Conditional Statement**: In situations where readability is paramount, using a simple conditional `if(test) { // do something }` can also achieve similar Boolean checks.
- **Ternary Operator**: For inline evaluations, a ternary operator (`test ? true : false`) provides clarity but tends to be more verbose than necessary for simple Boolean conversions.

In conclusion, this benchmark provides valuable insights into the performance characteristics of different Boolean conversion methods in JavaScript. Depending on context, developers can choose the most appropriate approach balancing performance and code clarity.

Related benchmarks:

Boolean valueOf vs !! test (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: Double negation vs Boolean vs Boolean valueOf

Created: one month ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Double negation

Boolean

Boolean valueOf

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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