Benchmark: test vs exec - MeasureThat.net

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Tests:

exec
/p/.exec("apple")
search
"apple".search(/p/)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
exec
search

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/136.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Edg/136.0.0.0

Browser/OS: Chrome 136 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
exec	38916408.0 Ops/sec
search	44325808.0 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 methods of searching through strings in JavaScript: `String.prototype.search()` and `RegExp.prototype.exec()`. Both approaches utilize regular expressions to find a match within a string, but they do so in distinct ways, resulting in differences in performance and behavior. Below is an explanation of what each method entails, the outcomes of the benchmark, and the pros and cons of each method.

### Test Cases and Their Purpose

1. **exec() Method**
   - **Benchmark Definition:** `/p/.exec("apple")`
   - **Purpose:** This method is a part of the JavaScript `RegExp` object, and it executes a search for a match in a specified string. It returns an array containing the matched results or `null` if no match is found.
   
2. **search() Method**
   - **Benchmark Definition:** `"apple".search(/p/)`
   - **Purpose:** This method is part of the `String` object and searches for a specified regular expression within the string. It returns the index of the first match or `-1` if no match is found.

### Performance Results
From the benchmark results:
- The `search()` method registered approximately **44,325,808 executions per second**.
- The `exec()` method registered approximately **38,916,408 executions per second**.

### Comparison of the Approaches

#### Pros and Cons

1. **exec()**
   - **Pros:**
     - Returns an array with detailed match information, including captured groups if any.
     - Can be useful when you need to extract more than just the index of the match.
   - **Cons:**
     - Slower performance compared to `search()` in this benchmark, primarily because it is designed to provide more detailed output, which involves more overhead.
     - Less intuitive when you only need the position of the match.

2. **search()**
   - **Pros:**
     - Generally faster than `exec()` when the only requirement is to determine if a match exists and to find its position.
     - Simplicity in to use, returns a number directly, making it a straightforward option for just searching without needing match details.
   - **Cons:**
     - Does not provide a match array or capture groups; useful for simple searches but not for complex pattern matching where you need more context.
     - If you want to get more information about the match, you'd have to use `exec()` anyway.

### Other Considerations
When choosing between `exec()` and `search()`, consider the requirements of the task at hand:
- If you only need to know if a substring exists and its position, prefer `search()`.
- If you need to extract parts of a match or handle groups within the regular expression, use `exec()` despite its lower performance in this scenario.

### Alternatives
Other alternatives for searching through strings could involve:
- **String.prototype.includes():** Useful for simple existence checks without using regular expressions. It returns a boolean indicating whether the string contains the specified substring.
- **String.prototype.indexOf():** An earlier method for finding the position of a substring within a string, returning the index or `-1`.

### Conclusion
The benchmark effectively pits two methods of string searching against each other, highlighting the trade-offs between performance and functionality. Understanding these differences allows developers to choose the right method based on their specific needs and performance considerations.

Related benchmarks:

test vs exec (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: exec vs search

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

exec

search

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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