Benchmark: Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Deep Array of Strings non-equals

HTML Preparation code:

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

Script Preparation code:

window.foo = {"page":0,"sort":"-transaction_at","filter":{"type":"deposit","opportunity_id":"8"}};
window.bar = {"page":1,"sort":"-transaction_at","filter":{"type":"deposit","opportunity_id":"8"}};

Tests:

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

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: 8 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:141.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/141.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 141 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.isEqual	760275.9 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify	692829.1 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the provided JSON and benchmark code to understand what is being tested.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark is testing two approaches for comparing equality between two objects: `lodash.isEqual` (using the Lodash library) and `JSON.stringify` (a built-in JavaScript function).

**Options Compared**

Two options are compared:

1. **Lodash isEqual**: This function takes two objects as arguments and returns a boolean indicating whether they are equal.
2. **JSON.stringify Equality Comparison**: This approach converts both objects to JSON strings using the `JSON.stringify()` method, and then compares these strings for equality.

**Pros and Cons of Each Approach**

1. **Lodash isEqual**
	* Pros:
		+ Faster execution time (as shown in the benchmark results).
		+ More flexible and customizable.
		+ Can handle complex data structures, such as nested arrays and objects.
	* Cons:
		+ Requires an external library (Lodash) to be included.
		+ May have a higher memory footprint due to the library's overhead.
2. **JSON.stringify Equality Comparison**
	* Pros:
		+ Does not require any external libraries or dependencies.
		+ Can provide faster execution times for simple object comparisons.
		+ Uses built-in JavaScript functionality, which is widely supported.
	* Cons:
		+ May be slower than Lodash isEqual for more complex data structures.
		+ Can lead to issues with cyclic references in objects (more on this later).

**Library: Lodash**

Lodash is a popular utility library for JavaScript that provides various functions for tasks such as string manipulation, array and object manipulation, and more. The `isEqual` function is one of its most commonly used functions.

**Special JS Feature/ Syntax: None**

There are no special JavaScript features or syntax used in this benchmark.

**Other Considerations**

When using the `JSON.stringify` approach, it's essential to note that cyclic references can cause issues due to infinite recursion. Cyclic references occur when an object refers to itself directly or indirectly (e.g., through nested objects). This can lead to performance issues and potentially even crashes in some browsers.

**Alternatives**

Other alternatives for comparing equality between two objects include:

1. **Object.is**: A built-in JavaScript function that compares two values for equality.
2. **DeepEqual**: A library function from the `deep-equal` package, which is similar to Lodash isEqual but has a different implementation.
3. **JsonLinq**: A library that provides a JSON-based query language for filtering and comparing objects.

These alternatives may offer advantages over the Lodash isEqual approach or the `JSON.stringify Equality Comparison` method, depending on your specific use case and requirements.

Related benchmarks:

Lodash.isEqual vs JSON.stringify Equality Comparison for Deep Array of Strings non-equals (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs JSON.stringify

Created: 6 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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