Benchmark: _.forEach vs for of

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/2.4.1/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

var data = [];
data.length = 50000;

for (var i = 0; i < data.length; ++i) {
  data[i] = { key: 1000 + i * 10, something: "abc_" + i };
}

Tests:

_.foreach
_.forEach(data, d => { });
for of
for (var d of data) { }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.foreach
for of

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) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/135.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 135 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.foreach	6348.8 Ops/sec
for of	83174.2 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark defined in the provided JSON compares two different approaches for iterating over an array of objects in JavaScript: using Lodash's `_.forEach` method and the ES6 `for...of` loop.

### Options Compared

1. **Lodash `_.forEach` Method**:
   - **Test Case**: `_.forEach(data, d => { });`
   - **Description**: This method is part of Lodash, a popular utility library that provides various functions for common programming tasks. Here, `_.forEach` is used to iterate over each element in the `data` array, executing a provided function for each element.

2. **ES6 `for...of` Loop**:
   - **Test Case**: `for (var d of data) { }`
   - **Description**: This is a built-in JavaScript syntax introduced in ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) for iterating over iterable objects (like arrays). The `for...of` loop allows developers to iterate through the values of the iterable without needing to manage an index explicitly.

### Performance Results

From the benchmark results:
- The `for...of` loop achieved **83,174** executions per second.
- The Lodash `_.forEach` method achieved **6,349** executions per second.

### Pros and Cons

#### Lodash `_.forEach`
- **Pros**:
  - Consistency: Lodash provides a consistent API that can be more readable to some developers, especially those familiar with functional programming paradigms.
  - Chainable: Lodash functions can be easily chained with other Lodash operations, enabling more expressive and concise code.

- **Cons**:
  - Overhead: Using Lodash introduces additional overhead since it involves function calls and relies on an external library, which can slow down execution compared to native solutions.
  - Bundle Size: Including Lodash can increase the bundle size of your application, especially if only a few functions are used.

#### ES6 `for...of`
- **Pros**:
  - Performance: The native `for...of` loop is generally more performant, as shown by the benchmark results. It has lower overhead and is optimized for iterations in modern JavaScript engines.
  - Simplicity: Being built into the language, it requires no additional libraries and has a straightforward syntax, making it accessible for all developers.

- **Cons**:
  - Limited Functionality: Unlike Lodash, the `for...of` loop lacks some of the functional programming utilities that might simplify certain tasks when dealing with arrays and objects.
  - Compatibility: Older browsers that do not support ES6 will not recognize `for...of`, although this is less of an issue with modern JavaScript development practices and tooling.

### Other Considerations

- **Alternatives**:
  - **`forEach` method**: Built into arrays, `data.forEach(d => { })` is another alternative, similar to Lodash's function.
  - **`map`, `filter`, etc.**: These higher-order functions can also be used for iterations depending on the desired outcome (transforming or filtering data rather than merely processing each item).
  - **Regular `for` loop**: Traditional `for` loops provide a way to iterate while maintaining more control over the iteration index, which can sometimes be advantageous.

Ultimately, the choice between `_.forEach`, `for...of`, and other alternatives depends on the specific requirements of the task, performance considerations, and the constraints of the project including library usage, browser compatibility, and developer familiarity.

Related benchmarks:

_.forEach vs for of (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: _.foreach vs for of

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.foreach

for of

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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