Benchmark: math.abs vs Number

HTML Preparation code:

<!--your preparation HTML code goes here-->

Script Preparation code:

num = -2.2

Tests:

math.abs
Math.abs(num)
Number
Number(num)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
math.abs
Number

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 8 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:141.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/141.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 141 on Mac OS X 10.15

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
math.abs	1178606976.0 Ops/sec
Number	64936004.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 8 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark in question compares the performance of two approaches to obtain the absolute value of a number in JavaScript: `Math.abs(num)` and `Number(num)`.

### Options Compared
1. **Math.abs(num)**: This is a function provided by JavaScript's built-in `Math` object, specifically designed to return the absolute value of a number. In this case, it is used to convert `-2.2` to `2.2`.

2. **Number(num)**: This is a constructor that can be used to convert values to a number type. When passed a numeric value, such as `-2.2`, it will return the same value, but `Number()` doesn't specifically aim to return the absolute value of its argument. Using it to get the absolute value involves additional logic to handle negatives, typically either comparing the number to zero or using conditional statements.

### Pros and Cons of Approaches

**Math.abs(num)**:
- **Pros**:
  - Direct and specific: Explicitly designed to return the absolute value.
  - Generally faster because it involves a single function call without conditional checks.
  
- **Cons**:
  - None significant regarding performance in this context.

**Number(num)**:
- **Pros**:
  - Can be used for type conversion in general, making it versatile for different contexts beyond just calculating absolute values.
  
- **Cons**:
  - Not designed for obtaining the absolute value, thus requiring additional logic to achieve this (like comparing and negating).
  - Typically slower than `Math.abs`, as shown in the benchmark results where `Number(num)` achieved significantly fewer executions per second.

### Benchmark Results
In the benchmark results, we can see the metrics of performance:
- For `Math.abs(num)`, the benchmark recorded approximately **1,178,606,976** executions per second.
- For `Number(num)`, it recorded around **64,936,004** executions per second.

Clearly, `Math.abs(num)` is vastly superior in performance, making it the better choice when specifically needing the absolute value.

### Libraries/Syntax
In this benchmark, no external library is employed, and the syntax is standard JavaScript. The features used are core to the JavaScript language: the `Math` object and the `Number` constructor.

### Alternatives
Besides `Math.abs` and `Number`, other alternatives to obtain absolute values could include:
- Simple conditional expressions, such as `num < 0 ? -num : num`, though this approach is more verbose and less performant than either of the two methods tested.
- In functional programming paradigms, you might see libraries or utility functions designed to handle numerical operations but, again, `Math.abs` is the most direct and efficient method for this specific task.

Overall, the benchmark clearly indicates that for getting the absolute value, `Math.abs` is the optimal choice in terms of both clarity and performance.

Related benchmarks:

math.abs vs Number (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: math.abs vs Number

Created: 8 months ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

math.abs

Number

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 8 months ago):