Benchmark: Property vs getAttribute

HTML Preparation code:

<html lang="en">
  <head></head>
  <body></body>
</html>

Tests:

lang
const lang = document.documentElement.lang;
getAttribute
const lang = document.documentElement.getAttribute('lang');

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
lang
getAttribute

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 22 days 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
lang	10503527.0 Ops/sec
getAttribute	11189843.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 22 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark being tested in the provided JSON is comparing two different methods for accessing the `lang` attribute of the `<html>` element in a web page: direct property access (`document.documentElement.lang`) versus using the `getAttribute` method (`document.documentElement.getAttribute('lang')`). Both methods are evaluated in terms of how many times they can be executed per second, which is a common performance metric in benchmarking.

### Test Cases Explained:

1. **Direct Property Access (`lang`)**:
   - **Test Name**: `lang`
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `const lang = document.documentElement.lang;`
   - **What It Does**: This test accesses the `lang` property of the `document.documentElement` (which refers to the `<html>` element). When using property access, JavaScript retrieves the value directly.
  
2. **Method Access (`getAttribute`)**:
   - **Test Name**: `getAttribute`
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `const lang = document.documentElement.getAttribute('lang');`
   - **What It Does**: This test retrieves the `lang` attribute's value using the `getAttribute` method of the `Element` interface. The `getAttribute` method returns the string value of the specified attribute on the element.

### Pros and Cons:

#### Direct Property Access (`lang`):
- **Pros**:
  - Generally faster due to direct access.
  - Simpler syntax and easier to read for basic properties.
  - Direct properties are often better for performance since they bypass the overhead of function calls.
  
- **Cons**:
  - Does not work for attributes that do not have a corresponding property, or for non-standard attributes (custom attributes).
  - Limited to properties defined on the DOM interface.

#### Method Access (`getAttribute`)**:
- **Pros**:
  - More versatile; can be used to retrieve any attribute, including non-standard or custom attributes.
  - Provides a consistent API for attribute access.
  
- **Cons**:
  - Potentially slower due to the overhead of a method call, especially for very frequent access patterns.
  - Requires string input to specify the attribute name, which could be error-prone if the attribute name is not carefully managed.

### Other Considerations:
- **Performance Implications**: In situations where performance is critical (e.g., tight loops or frequent DOM manipulations), choosing the faster option could make a noticeable difference in overall application performance. The benchmark results show that direct access (`lang`) was executed approximately 10.5 million times per second, while using `getAttribute` achieved around 11.2 million executions per second.
  
- **Readability vs Performance**: While direct property access is faster, the choice between the two methods may also depend on the need for readability and maintainability in the code. Using `getAttribute` could improve code clarity, especially for less common attributes.

### Alternatives:
- **Using the `dataset` Property**: For custom HTML attributes, developers might consider using the `data-*` attributes in HTML and accessing them via the `dataset` property in JavaScript (e.g., `element.dataset.someProperty`). This approach provides both performance benefits and readability, especially for custom data attributes.
  
- **Element Properties**: For standard attributes that have corresponding properties, relying on direct properties is typically the best approach due to performance.

In conclusion, the benchmark demonstrates the performance comparison between two different methods for accessing the `lang` attribute on the HTML element. Developers need to weigh the pros and cons of each method, keeping in mind the specific scenarios in which they are being used.

Related benchmarks:

Property vs getAttribute (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: lang vs getAttribute

Created: 22 days ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

lang

getAttribute

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 22 days ago):