Benchmark: Search Params Parsing comparison

Script Preparation code:

const url = 'https://example.com/some/deep/path?foo=bar&another=param&hello=world';

const urlObj = new URL(url);
const PARAM = urlObj.searchParams.get('another');

function getParam() {
  const urlObj = new URL(url);
  const param = urlObj.searchParams.get('another');
  return param;
}

Tests:

Creating URL
console.log(getParam());
Just variable access
console.log(PARAM);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Creating URL
Just variable access

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
Creating URL	203401.6 Ops/sec
Just variable access	417231.9 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark described is focused on comparing different methods of accessing URL search parameters in JavaScript. It tests two distinct approaches using the `URL` API, which is a built-in feature of modern JavaScript that allows for easier manipulation of URLs.

### Options Being Compared

1. **Creating a URL Object and Accessing a Parameter**
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `console.log(getParam());`
   - **Test Name**: "Creating URL"
   - In this test case, a URL object is created each time the `getParam` function is invoked. The search parameter 'another' is then accessed from this object.

2. **Direct Variable Access**
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `console.log(PARAM);`
   - **Test Name**: "Just variable access"
   - In this test case, the search parameter 'another' is obtained once during the initial setup and stored in a variable called `PARAM`. The test then just accesses this variable.

### Pros and Cons

**Creating URL Object and Accessing Parameter (getParam function)**
- **Pros**:
  - It demonstrates the use of the `URL` API, which is useful for dynamically parsing URLs at runtime.
  - It’s cleaner and aligns with scenarios where the URL might change frequently or come from a dynamic source.
  
- **Cons**:
  - Each call to this function creates a new URL object, which incurs additional computational overhead and is slower as seen in the results.
  - Performance may degrade in situations with many calls to this function, particularly in performance-critical applications.

**Direct Variable Access (PARAM)**
- **Pros**:
  - It is significantly faster, as indicated by the benchmark results (417,231.875 executions per second).
  - It avoids repeated processing of a URL object, making it more efficient for cases where the data is static and does not require re-parsing.
  
- **Cons**:
  - It is less flexible. If the URL changes, a new variable assignment would be necessary, requiring additional overhead to re-parse the URL.
  - Not suitable for scenarios where parameters might change dynamically or are sourced from user input or other variable sources.

### Other Considerations
When using this code, one must consider the use case. If URLs are static or known ahead of time, storing parameters in variables could save processing time. However, if URLs are dynamic or subject to frequent changes, leveraging the `URL` object might be advantageous despite the performance overhead.

### Alternative Approaches
Beyond using the `URL` API, developers might consider alternative methods for parsing query parameters:
- **Manual String Manipulation**: Extracting parameters using string operations like `.split()` and `.substring()`. This method can be faster in cases where you know exactly the structure of the query string, but it lacks the robustness of the `URL` API.
  
- **Using Libraries**: Libraries like `qs` or `query-string` provide functionality to parse query strings effectively. They are particularly useful if advanced parsing and options are needed, including nested objects or arrays as query parameters.
  
- **Built-in Browser Support**: Leveraging features built into the browser, especially when being mindful of polyfills for compatibility in older browsers.

In summary, the benchmark aims to present a clear comparison of the performance implications of two approaches for accessing URL parameters while highlighting the trade-offs between flexibility and speed. The choice of method should always be context-dependent, weighing performance against maintainability and clarity in the codebase.

Related benchmarks:

Search Params Parsing comparison (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: Creating URL vs Just variable access

Created: one year ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

Creating URL

Just variable access

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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