Benchmark: Accessing Property of Object Directly vs. Defensively

Accessing Property of Object Directly vs. Defensively (version: 9)

Comparing performance of: Direct Access vs Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement vs Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement using `hasOwnProperty` vs Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining vs Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`

Created: 7 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

Script Preparation code:

var response = {
  data: {
    property: "value",
  },
};

Tests:

Direct Access
function directAccess () { return response.data.property; } directAccess();
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaIfStatement () { if (response && response.data && response.data.property) { return response.data.property; } } defensiveCheckForExistenceViaIfStatement();
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement using `hasOwnProperty`
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaIfStatementUsingHasOwnProperty () { if (response && Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response, 'data') && Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response.data, 'property') ) { return response.data.property; } } defensiveCheckForExistenceViaIfStatementUsingHasOwnProperty();
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChaining () { return response && response.data && response.data.property; } defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChaining();
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChainingUsingHasOwnProperty () { return ( response && Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response, 'data') && Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response.data, 'property') ); } defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChainingUsingHasOwnProperty();

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Direct Access
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement using `hasOwnProperty`
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one year ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/133.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 133 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Direct Access	147954960.0 Ops/sec
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement	157243008.0 Ops/sec
Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement using `hasOwnProperty`	59439180.0 Ops/sec
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining	155806640.0 Ops/sec
Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`	63204408.0 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 benchmark.

**Benchmark Overview**

The provided benchmark compares four different approaches to accessing a property of an object in JavaScript:

1. Direct Access
2. Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement
3. Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining
4. Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`

These approaches are compared to determine which one is the most efficient in terms of performance.

**Direct Access**

This approach simply accesses the property directly without any checks or verifications.
```javascript
function directAccess () {
  return response.data.property;
}
```
Pros:

* Simple and straightforward
* No overhead from checks or verifications

Cons:

* May throw an error if `response` is null, undefined, or not an object
* Does not account for potential security risks (e.g., accessing private properties)

**Defensive Check for Existence via If-statement**

This approach uses an if-statement to check if the property exists before accessing it.
```javascript
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaIfStatement () {
  if (response && response.data && response.data.property) {
    return response.data.property;
  }
}
```
Pros:

* Accounts for potential security risks by ensuring `response` is not null or undefined
* Allows for early termination if the property does not exist

Cons:

* Adds overhead from checks and verifications
* May be slower due to the extra computations involved

**Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining**

This approach uses a chaining mechanism (i.e., calling `&&` operator in sequence) to check if the property exists.
```javascript
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChaining () {
  return response && response.data && response.data.property;
}
```
Pros:

* Similar overhead to If-statement approach, but with fewer checks

Cons:

* May be slower due to the chaining mechanism
* Does not account for potential security risks as thoroughly as If-statement approach

**Defensive Check for Existence via Chaining using `hasOwnProperty`**

This approach uses the `hasOwnProperty` method to check if the property exists.
```javascript
function defensiveCheckForExistenceViaChainingUsingHasOwnProperty () {
  return (
    response &&
      Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response, 'data') &&
      Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(response.data, 'property')
  );
}
```
Pros:

* Accounts for potential security risks by ensuring `response` is not null or undefined
* Allows for early termination if the property does not exist

Cons:

* Adds overhead from checks and verifications
* May be slower due to the extra computations involved

**Library**

None of these approaches rely on a specific library.

**Special JavaScript Features/Syntax**

None mentioned in this benchmark.

**Other Alternatives**

Some alternative approaches that could be explored include:

* Using `in` operator instead of `hasOwnProperty`
* Using `try-catch` block to catch errors
* Using memoization or caching to reduce the number of checks
* Using a library like Lodash or Ramda for utility functions

Keep in mind that the choice of approach depends on the specific use case and requirements.

Related benchmarks: