Benchmark: json stringify/parse vs array join/split (numbers) v1

Script Preparation code:

function moreData(arr, left) {
  if(left === 0) return arr;
  else {
    arr.push(Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000));
    return moreData(arr, left - 1);
  }
}
function makeTestData() { return moreData([], 40); }

Tests:

join/split
makeTestData().join(',').split(',').map(Number)
JSON.stringify/parse
JSON.stringify(makeTestData());

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
join/split
JSON.stringify/parse

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 9 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/139.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 139 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
join/split	357006.2 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify/parse	1138667.2 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 9 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

This benchmark tests the performance of two different approaches to convert an array of numbers into a string format and back again in JavaScript. The two methods being compared are:

1. **Using `Array.join()` and `String.split()`**:
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `makeTestData().join(',').split(',').map(Number)`
   - **Description**: This approach begins by generating an array of 40 random numbers ranging from 0 to 999,999 using the `makeTestData` function. The `join(',')` method then converts this array into a single string representation, with each number separated by a comma. Finally, the `split(',')` method is used to break that string back into an array, followed by `map(Number)`, which converts the split string values back to numbers.
   - **Pros**:
     - Simple and straightforward implementation.
     - Works well for converting small to moderately sized arrays of items.
   - **Cons**:
     - Performance may degrade with larger datasets due to string manipulation and the additional overhead of splitting the string and converting each piece back to a number.
  
2. **Using `JSON.stringify()`**:
   - **Benchmark Definition**: `JSON.stringify(makeTestData());`
   - **Description**: This method directly generates the array of random numbers using the same `makeTestData` function, but instead of manipulating strings, it serializes the entire array into a JSON string using `JSON.stringify()`.
   - **Pros**:
     - Efficient for converting entire arrays or objects to a string representation in a single operation, with less overhead for string manipulation.
     - JSON format can be easily parsed back into the original structure.
   - **Cons**:
     - May introduce overhead if the data structure is complex, but for simple arrays of numbers, this is generally negligible.

### Benchmark Results
- **JSON.stringify/parse** achieved **1,138,667.25 executions per second**.
- **join/split** achieved **357,006.1875 executions per second**.

### Performance Insights
The benchmark clearly indicates that `JSON.stringify` is significantly more performant than the combination of `join` and `split` for this particular use case. While both methods effectively achieve the same goal of converting an array to a string representation and back, the JSON method excels in speed and efficiency.

### Other Considerations
This benchmark could be further extended to test larger datasets or different data types (e.g., nested structures) to provide a more comprehensive comparison. Additionally, while both methods are valid, choosing between them would depend on the specific use case. If a simpler string representation is needed and performance is not as critical, then `join` and `split` could still be a suitable choice.

In conclusion, for handling arrays of numbers, particularly if performance is a consideration, `JSON.stringify` is generally the preferred approach, while `join` and `split` may be used in simpler or less performance-sensitive contexts.

Related benchmarks:

json stringify/parse vs array join/split (numbers) v1 (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: join/split vs JSON.stringify/parse

Created: 9 months ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

join/split

JSON.stringify/parse

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 9 months ago):