Benchmark: Which equals operator (!== vs > ) is faster?

Tests:

test inequality
var n = 0; while(true) { n++; if(n!==100000) continue; else break; }
test mover
var n = 0; while(true) { n++; if(n<100000) continue; else break; }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
test inequality
test mover

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 16 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:151.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/151.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 151 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
test inequality	35523.7 Ops/sec
test mover	35621.6 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark titled "Which equals operator (!== vs > ) is faster?" compares two different approaches for evaluating equality using JavaScript in a loop. The two test cases use different operators to determine when to exit the loop, and the performance is measured in terms of executions per second.

### Test Cases Overview

1. **Test Name: test inequality**
   - **Benchmark Definition:** 
     ```javascript
     var n = 0;
     while(true) {
         n++;
         if(n !== 100000) 
             continue;
         else 
             break;
     }
     ```
   - **Description:** This test uses the strict inequality operator `!==`. It increments `n` until it reaches `100,000`, continuously checking if `n` is not equal to `100,000`. The loop exits when `n` equals `100,000`.

2. **Test Name: test mover**
   - **Benchmark Definition:**
     ```javascript
     var n = 0;
     while(true) {
         n++;
         if(n < 100000) 
             continue;
         else 
             break;
     }
     ```
   - **Description:** This test uses the less-than operator `<`. It also increments `n` until it reaches `100,000`, but it checks if `n` is less than `100,000`. The loop exits when `n` is no longer less than `100,000`.

### Pros and Cons

#### Using `!==` (Strict Inequality)
- **Pros:**
  - The use of `!==` explicitly checks for both value and type, which is generally considered a safer choice in JavaScript as it avoids type coercion issues.
  - Performance may be slightly better in certain JavaScript engines, as direct comparison can be optimized.

- **Cons:**
  - May be marginally slower in specific environments if the JavaScript engine has optimizations for numeric comparisons.
  
#### Using `<` (Less-Than Operator)
- **Pros:**
  - The less-than operator is a straightforward numeric comparison and may be optimized in some JavaScript engines for performance.
  
- **Cons:**
  - It does not check for the type, which could lead to unexpected behavior if mixed types are unintentionally used in other contexts.

### Benchmark Results Summary
The results showed:
- **For test inequality (`!==`):** Executions per second = 30,425.53
- **For test mover (`<`):** Executions per second = 30,364.87

The difference in performance is not significant in this case, indicating that both operators perform similarly within the context of this specific benchmark.

### Other Considerations
- The differences in performance may vary based on the JavaScript engine being used—V8 (Chrome, Node.js), SpiderMonkey (Firefox), or JavaScriptCore (Safari)—as different engines have different optimization strategies.
- For most applications, the readability and clarity of the code are often more important than micro-optimizations, so choosing the operator should consider both performance and developer intent.

### Alternatives
Alternative methods for similar benchmarks could include:
- Using arithmetic comparisons (e.g., using `>=` to check against a threshold).
- Exploring other loop structures, such as `for` loops, which could offer more clarity in certain cases.
- Testing more complex conditions that might provide insights into performance across different scenarios.

In summary, while this benchmark evaluates two operators with negligible differences in performance in the specific context tested, it emphasizes the importance of understanding equality checks in JavaScript and their influence on code quality and execution efficiency.

Related benchmarks:

Which equals operator (!== vs > ) is faster? (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: test inequality vs test mover

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

test inequality

test mover

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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