Benchmark: Array allocate - MeasureThat.net

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Tests:

allocation only
/*When writing async/deferred tests, use `deferred.resolve()` to mark test as done*/ const a = new Array(2048)
allocation + fill
const a = (new Array(2048)).fill(0)

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Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
allocation only
allocation + fill

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 14 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:150.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/150.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 150 on Mac OS X 10.15

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Test name	Executions per second
allocation only	1564581120.0 Ops/sec
allocation + fill	206861.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark described in the provided JSON tests two methods of array allocation in JavaScript to evaluate their performance in terms of execution speed. The purpose is to determine the time it takes to allocate an array with a specified size in two different ways:

1. **Allocation Only**: This test involves creating a new array of size 2048 without initializing it with any values.
2. **Allocation + Fill**: This test involves creating a new array of size 2048 and initializing all its elements to zero using the `fill()` method.

### Options Compared
The two test cases compared are:
- **Allocation Only**: `const a = new Array(2048);`
- **Allocation + Fill**: `const a = (new Array(2048)).fill(0);`

### Pros and Cons of Each Approach

#### 1. Allocation Only
- **Pros**:
  - **Speed**: This method is typically faster because it involves only the task of memory allocation without any extra operations.
  - **Simplicity**: It is straightforward and does not involve a secondary operation, making it efficient in terms of performance.

- **Cons**:
  - **Uninitialized Elements**: The array elements are left uninitialized, potentially leading to undefined values if they are accessed before being explicitly set.

#### 2. Allocation + Fill
- **Pros**:
  - **Initialized Values**: This method ensures that all elements in the array are initialized to zero, which can be important if the code expects to work with these values immediately.
  - **Safety**: Helps prevent unexpected behavior during operations that assume initialized values.

- **Cons**:
  - **Performance Overhead**: The operation of filling the array with zeros incurs additional overhead, making it slower than just allocating the array.
  - **Higher Resource Use**: Since it involves writing to every element, it consumes more CPU time and can impact performance for larger arrays or in performance-sensitive applications.

### Other Considerations
- The choice between these methods depends on the specific requirements of the application. If immediate use of the data is necessary and uninitialized values could cause errors, the fill operation might be justified despite the performance cost.
- In scenarios where initialization is not necessary, or where performance is a critical factor (e.g., in high-performance computing scenarios), opting for allocation only would be the preferred method.

### Other Alternatives
- **Array.from**: This method creates a new Array instance from an array-like or iterable object, allowing for more complex initialization patterns. For example, `Array.from({ length: 2048 }, () => 0)` would also create an array of length 2048 with all elements initialized to zero.
- **Spread Operator**: Using the spread operator could also be an option when combined with other array manipulation techniques, but it's generally less optimal for pure allocation scenarios.
- **Typed Arrays**: In performance-critical applications, developers might consider using typed arrays, which provide a mechanism to work with binary data directly and are often more efficient for specific use cases.

Overall, software engineers need to weigh the trade-offs of speed and safety when choosing which array creation method to use, taking into account the specific nuances of their applications and performance requirements.

Related benchmarks:

Array allocate (version: 1)

Determine the time to allocate an array vs allocating the same size array and initializing it with all zeros

Comparing performance of: allocation only vs allocation + fill

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

allocation only

allocation + fill

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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