Benchmark: int vs string comparison

Tests:

int comparison
const a = 1582804062513 const b = 1592804062513 const c = b - a const d = a - b
string compare with locale
const a = "1582804062513_note" const b = "1592804062513_note" const c = a.localeCompare(b) const d = b.localeCompare(a)
string compare simple
const a = "1582804062513" const b = "1592804062513" const c = a > b const d = b < c
special case
const a = "1582804062513_note".substring(0, 13) const b = "1592804062513_note".substring(0, 13) const c = a > b const d = b < c

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
int comparison
string compare with locale
string compare simple
special case

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 6 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:137.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/137.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 137 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
int comparison	816300416.0 Ops/sec
string compare with locale	2144718.0 Ops/sec
string compare simple	744194944.0 Ops/sec
special case	14485697.0 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the provided benchmark and explain what's being tested, compared, and considered.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark compares different approaches to perform comparisons between integers and strings in JavaScript.

**Test Cases**

There are four test cases:

1. **int comparison**: This test case uses subtraction to compare two integer values.
2. **string compare with locale**: This test case uses the `localeCompare` method to compare two string values, taking into account the locale (e.g., language and region) settings of the browser.
3. **string compare simple**: This test case simply checks if one string value is greater than another using a standard comparison operator (`>`).
4. **special case**: This test case uses the `substring` method to extract a portion of a string and then compares two string values.

**Comparison Options**

The benchmark compares three options for each type of comparison (integer and string):

1. **Subtraction** (int comparison): `const c = b - a`
2. **localeCompare** (string compare with locale): `const c = a.localeCompare(b)`
3. **Standard comparison operator** (`>` or `<`) (string compare simple): `const c = a > b` or `const d = b < c`

**Pros and Cons of Each Approach**

Here's a brief summary of the pros and cons of each approach:

* **Subtraction**:
	+ Pros: Simple, efficient, and widely supported.
	+ Cons: May not work as expected if one value is negative or zero, and may lose precision for large numbers.
* **localeCompare**:
	+ Pros: Takes into account locale settings, which can lead to more accurate results in certain cases. Also handles NaN (Not a Number) values well.
	+ Cons: Can be slower than subtraction due to the complexity of the algorithm, and some locales may not provide a good comparison.
* **Standard comparison operator**:
	+ Pros: Simple and widely supported.
	+ Cons: May not work as expected in certain cases, such as NaN or special values (e.g., `Infinity`).

**Library Used**

The `localeCompare` method is a built-in JavaScript function that uses the browser's locale settings to compare string values.

**Special Consideration**

In the **special case**, the test extracts a portion of the string using the `substring` method, which can be useful in certain situations. However, this approach may not be suitable for all use cases, especially if the extracted substring is intended to represent the same value as the original string.

**Alternatives**

Some alternative approaches that could be used instead of subtraction or `localeCompare` include:

* **parseInt**: Can be used to convert a string to an integer, but this approach may not handle all edge cases (e.g., NaN or special values).
* **Number**: Can be used to cast a string to a number, but this approach may not work as expected for non-numeric strings.
* **Specialized comparison libraries**: There are third-party libraries available that provide optimized comparison functions for specific use cases (e.g., financial or scientific comparisons).

Related benchmarks:

int vs string comparison (version: 3)

Comparing performance of: int comparison vs string compare with locale vs string compare simple vs special case

Created: 5 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

int comparison

string compare with locale

string compare simple

special case

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 6 months ago):