Benchmark: Javascript: Case insensitive string comparison performance2

Script Preparation code:

var a = "John Doe"
var b = "john doe"
var c = "john smith"
var o = {
    sensitivity: 'base'
}
var d = "john doe"

Tests:

toLowerCase()
a.toLowerCase() === b.toLowerCase()
localeCompare()
a.localeCompare(b,undefined,o)
toLowerCase() FAIL
c.toLowerCase() === b.toLowerCase()
localeCompare() FAIL
c.localeCompare(b,undefined,o)
compare Already lower
a.toLowerCase() === d.toLowerCase()
just compare
a === b

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
toLowerCase()
localeCompare()
toLowerCase() FAIL
localeCompare() FAIL
compare Already lower
just compare

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:136.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/136.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 136 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
toLowerCase()	996464448.0 Ops/sec
localeCompare()	244402.7 Ops/sec
toLowerCase() FAIL	1029613056.0 Ops/sec
localeCompare() FAIL	256336.1 Ops/sec
compare Already lower	1036172288.0 Ops/sec
just compare	1008691200.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark represented in the provided JSON focuses on evaluating the performance of various string comparison methods in JavaScript that handle case insensitivity. Specifically, it tests how efficiently different techniques determine if two strings are equal while ignoring case differences.

### Options Compared

1. **`toLowerCase() ===`**:
   - **Test Case**: Comparing lowercased versions of two strings.
   - **Pros**: Straightforward to understand and implement. This method makes it very clear that the comparison is case-insensitive.
   - **Cons**: Requires creating new string objects each time; can be less efficient for large-scale comparisons.

2. **`localeCompare()`**:
   - **Test Cases**:
     - Successful comparison (`localeCompare(b, undefined, o)`)
     - Failed comparison (`localeCompare(b, undefined, o)` with different strings)
   - **Pros**: Supports locale-aware string comparison and can handle international strings effectively. By passing options (like `sensitivity: 'base'`), it allows for greater control over how comparisons are made.
   - **Cons**: Generally has a higher computational overhead than direct string comparisons due to additional locale processing.

3. **Direct Comparison (`===`)**:
   - **Test Case**: Directly comparing the original strings.
   - **Pros**: Fastest of all methods as it directly checks for equality without any transformations or overhead.
   - **Cons**: Case-sensitive; does not ignore case differences.

### Client-Side Library

In this benchmark, there is no mention of external libraries being utilized for string handling; the tests are purely based on native JavaScript functionality.

### Special JavaScript Features

The benchmark leans on standard JavaScript features and syntax. The `localeCompare()` method is a built-in function that is particularly relevant for locale-aware string comparison. It can be configured with various options to control how the comparison is done, which makes it versatile for different languages and cultural contexts. However, in this benchmark, it specifically uses the options object to set case sensitivity, demonstrating its utility in performing refined comparisons.

### Alternative Methods for Case-Insensitive Comparison

- **Regex**: You can use regular expressions for case-insensitive matching (e.g., `/^john doe$/i`). This provides flexibility but may incur additional overhead during execution.
- **Normalization**: Normalizing strings using `.normalize()` combined with comparison functions might help in contexts where characters have different representations but are visually the same (e.g., accented characters).

### Conclusion

The benchmark provides insight into the performance characteristics of various case-insensitive string comparison methods in JavaScript. While the `toLowerCase()` method is simple and effective for small-scale cases, performance can vary significantly across different implementations based on application context, string size, and operating environment. Evaluating these options will help developers choose the best approach based on their specific use cases, particularly when dealing with large volumes of text or when localization considerations come into play.

Related benchmarks:

Javascript: Case insensitive string comparison performance2 (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: toLowerCase() vs localeCompare() vs toLowerCase() FAIL vs localeCompare() FAIL vs compare Already lower vs just compare

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

toLowerCase()

localeCompare()

toLowerCase() FAIL

localeCompare() FAIL

compare Already lower

just compare

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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