Benchmark: Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings.

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

window.foo = ['cat', 'dog', 'bird'];
window.bar = ['cat', 'dog', 'bird'];

Tests:

_.isEqual
_.isEqual(window.foo, window.bar)
JSON.stringify
JSON.stringify(window.foo) === JSON.stringify(window.bar);

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 638 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 536 runs

_.isEqual

3.5M/s

JSON.stringify

2.5M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (1.4x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 3,515,794 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 2,517,827 ops/sec

Firefox 65 runs

_.isEqual

2.5M/s

JSON.stringify

1.9M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (1.3x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 2,531,768 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 1,915,121 ops/sec

Safari 13 runs

_.isEqual

5.7M/s

JSON.stringify

4.2M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (1.4x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 5,746,014 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 4,221,452 ops/sec

Other 11 runs

_.isEqual

2.9M/s

JSON.stringify

2.1M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (1.4x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 2,893,530 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 2,063,486 ops/sec

Mobile Results:

Chrome 7 runs

_.isEqual

2.3M/s

JSON.stringify

1.7M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (1.3x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 2,261,222 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 1,679,562 ops/sec

Safari 6 runs

_.isEqual

7.0M/s

JSON.stringify

3.4M/s

Fastest: _.isEqual (2.1x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ _.isEqual: 7,000,314 ops/sec
• JSON.stringify: 3,381,246 ops/sec

Results show median performance across all community submissions. Run this benchmark yourself to verify on your device.

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual
JSON.stringify

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:150.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/150.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 150 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

_.isEqual

2.8M/s

JSON.stringify

2.4M/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ _.isEqual	2,846,050 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify	2,354,335 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the explanation.

The provided JSON represents a JavaScript microbenchmark on MeasureThat.net, which compares the performance of two approaches for shallow array equality comparison: using Lodash's `isEqual` function and comparing JSON strings.

**Lodash's `isEqual` function**

Lodash is a popular JavaScript utility library that provides various functions to perform common tasks. In this case, `isEqual` is used to compare two values for deep equality.

Pros of using Lodash's `isEqual`:

1. Robustness: `isEqual` handles complex data structures and recursive objects.
2. Convenience: It eliminates the need to write custom comparison logic.
3. Performance: Optimized for performance, making it suitable for microbenchmarks.

Cons of using Lodash's `isEqual`:

1. Overhead: Including an external library adds overhead to the benchmark, which might not be desirable for all use cases.
2. Dependencies: The benchmark relies on the presence and version of the Lodash library in the environment.

**Comparing JSON strings**

The alternative approach is to compare JSON strings using the `===` operator or `JSON.stringify()` with no arguments.

Pros of comparing JSON strings:

1. Lightweight: This approach does not require including an external library.
2. Easy to implement: No additional dependencies are needed.

Cons of comparing JSON strings:

1. Limited scope: Only shallow equality is checked, which might not be sufficient for all use cases.
2. Potential issues with cyclic references or complex data structures.

**Comparison options**

The benchmark compares the performance of these two approaches:

1. `_.isEqual(window.foo, window.bar)`
2. `JSON.stringify(window.foo) === JSON.stringify(window.bar)`

These options are compared because they represent common patterns in JavaScript development: using external libraries for utility functions versus implementing custom comparisons.

**Special considerations**

In this benchmark, no special JavaScript features or syntax (e.g., async/await, promises) is used. However, it's essential to note that some modern browsers might have optimizations or quirks related to these features that could affect the benchmark results.

**Alternatives**

Other alternatives for shallow array equality comparison include:

1. `Array.prototype.every()` with a custom comparison function.
2. Using a library like Immer.js or a custom implementation of array equality.
3. Implementing a simple, lightweight comparison function using bitwise operations (e.g., comparing arrays element by element).

However, these alternatives might not be as widely supported or optimized for performance as Lodash's `isEqual` or the built-in `===` operator.

The benchmark results show that Lodash's `isEqual` is generally faster than comparing JSON strings, likely due to its optimized implementation and handling of complex data structures.

Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings. (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: `_.isEqual vs JSON.stringify`

Created: 7 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 638 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 536 runs

Firefox 65 runs

Safari 13 runs

Other 11 runs

Mobile Results:

Chrome 7 runs

Safari 6 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings. (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs JSON.stringify

Created: 7 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 638 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 536 runs

Firefox 65 runs

Safari 13 runs

Other 11 runs

Mobile Results:

Chrome 7 runs

Safari 6 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

Related benchmarks

Comparing performance of: `_.isEqual vs JSON.stringify`