Benchmark: Object key access vs array find

Script Preparation code:

var items = Array.from(Array(1000), (_,x) => ({key: x, value: x*10}));

var objContainer = {};
var arrContainer = [];

for (let i = 100; i >= 0; i--) {
  const index = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000);
  const item = items[index];
  objContainer[item.key] = item;
  arrContainer.push(item)
}

Tests:

Object access
items.forEach(item => objContainer[item.value])
Array find
items.forEach(item => arrContainer.find(containerItem => containerItem.value === item.value))

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Object access
Array find

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/147.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 147 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Object access	1907333.8 Ops/sec
Array find	1675.6 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the benchmark definition and test cases.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark tests two different approaches to access an object stored in an array:

1. **Object key access**: accessing an object by its key directly using `objContainer[item.key]`.
2. **Array find**: finding an object in an array using the `find()` method, which returns the first element that satisfies the provided condition (`containerItem => containerItem.value === item.value`).

**Test Cases**

The test cases are two JavaScript code snippets:

1. **Object access**: `items.forEach(item => objContainer[item.value])`
	* This test iterates over an array of objects (`items`) and, for each object, accesses the corresponding value in the `objContainer` object using its value as the key.
2. **Array find**: `items.forEach(item => arrContainer.find(containerItem => containerItem.value === item.value))`
	* This test also iterates over the same array of objects (`items`) and, for each object, finds a matching element in the `arrContainer` array using the `find()` method.

**Libraries and Features**

No external libraries are used in these tests. The code relies on built-in JavaScript features.

**Options Compared**

The two test cases compare the performance of:

1. **Direct object access**: accessing an object by its key directly using `objContainer[item.value]`.
2. **Array search**: finding a matching element in an array using the `find()` method.

**Pros and Cons**

* **Object key access**: Pros:
	+ Direct and efficient access to objects stored in an object container.
	+ Easy to implement and understand.
*   Cons:
    + Requires manual management of keys, which can be error-prone if not done correctly.
    + May lead to sparse objects with unnecessary keys.

*   **Array find**: Pros:
    + Provides a flexible way to search for elements in an array.
    + Can handle cases where the target element may or may not exist.
*   Cons:
    + Generally slower than direct object access due to the need to iterate over the array.
    + May return `undefined` if no matching element is found.

**Other Considerations**

When choosing between these approaches, consider the following factors:

1. **Frequent access patterns**: If you frequently access objects by their key, using an object container might be more efficient.
2. **Data structure complexity**: If your data has complex relationships or requires frequent array searches, using an array with `find()` method might be more suitable.
3. **Code readability and maintainability**: Choose the approach that makes your code easier to understand and manage.

**Alternatives**

Other alternatives for searching elements in an array include:

1. **Manual iteration**: Iterating over the array manually to find a matching element using a loop or recursive function.
2. **Using `indexOf()` method**: Searching for a specific value in an array using the `indexOf()` method, which returns the index of the first occurrence (or -1 if not found).
3. **Third-party libraries**: Utilize specialized libraries like Lodash or Ramda, which offer optimized searching functions.

Feel free to ask questions or clarify any doubts!

Related benchmarks:

Object key access vs array find (version: 0)

Test speed of object access by key vs array find to find object

Comparing performance of: Object access vs Array find

Created: 6 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

Object access

Array find

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.1:latest, generated one year ago):