Benchmark: Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers

HTML Preparation code:

<script src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/decimal.js-light@2.5.0/decimal.min.js'></script>

Script Preparation code:

var x = 5.236;

Tests:

Multiply using Decimal.js
for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) { Decimal('0.00253452345').times(Decimal('0.042234')) }
Multiply using native numbers
for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) { 0.00253452345 * 0.042234 }

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 7 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 7 runs

Multiply using native numbers

2.8M/s

Multiply using Decimal.js

2K/s

Fastest: Multiply using native numbers (1813.4x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ Multiply using native numbers: 2,790,551 ops/sec
• Multiply using Decimal.js: 1,539 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
Multiply using Decimal.js
Multiply using native numbers

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 18_3_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/134.0.6998.99 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1

Browser/OS: Chrome Mobile iOS 134 on iOS 18.3.2

View result in a separate tab

Multiply using native numbers

2.6M/s

Multiply using Decimal.js

2K/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ Multiply using native numbers	2,646,489 Ops/sec
Multiply using Decimal.js	2,122 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 benchmark and explain what's being tested.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark measures the performance of two approaches:

1. Using native numbers ( JavaScript built-in multiplication)
2. Using Decimal.js library for decimal arithmetic

**Options Compared**

Two options are being compared:

* **Native Numbers**: This approach uses JavaScript's built-in multiplication operator (`*`) to multiply two decimal values.
* **Decimal.js Library**: This approach uses the Decimal.js library, which is a popular implementation of decimal arithmetic in JavaScript. Decimal.js provides support for arbitrary-precision decimal numbers and operations on them.

**Pros and Cons**

### Native Numbers

Pros:

* Fast execution: Built-in multiplication is likely to be faster since it's implemented in native code.
* Simple setup: No additional library needs to be loaded or configured.

Cons:

* Limited precision: JavaScript's built-in multiplication can lose precision when dealing with very large or small decimal values.
* Potential for rounding errors: Rounding errors can occur due to the limitations of floating-point arithmetic.

### Decimal.js Library

Pros:

* Precise arithmetic: Decimal.js provides support for arbitrary-precision decimal numbers, which reduces the risk of rounding errors and precision loss.
* Customizable configuration: The library allows for fine-grained control over precision, rounding modes, and other settings.

Cons:

* Slower execution: Decimal.js operations are typically slower than native multiplication due to the additional overhead of the library.
* Additional setup: A JavaScript file needs to be loaded and configured before running the benchmark.

**Library and Its Purpose**

The Decimal.js library is a popular implementation of decimal arithmetic in JavaScript. It provides support for arbitrary-precision decimal numbers, operations on them (e.g., addition, subtraction, multiplication, division), and formatting functions. The library is designed to be easy to use and provides a simple API for working with decimal values.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

There are no special JavaScript features or syntax used in this benchmark. However, it's worth noting that some JavaScript engines (e.g., V8) have built-in support for decimal arithmetic or other specialized data types, but these are not enabled by default and require specific configuration or flags to use.

**Other Alternatives**

If you need to perform decimal arithmetic in your applications, here are a few alternative libraries or approaches:

* Big.js: A library that provides support for arbitrary-precision integers and decimal numbers.
* Mathjs: A JavaScript library that provides support for symbolic mathematics and arbitrary-precision arithmetic.
* Decimal.js alternatives: There are other implementations of the Decimal.js library available, such as Decimal.js Lite, which is a smaller and more lightweight version.

Keep in mind that each alternative has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice ultimately depends on your specific requirements and preferences.

Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: `Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers`

Created: 6 years ago by: Guest

Go to the latest result

Multiply using Decimal.js

Multiply using native numbers

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 7 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 7 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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

Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers

Created: 6 years ago by: Guest

Go to the latest result

Multiply using Decimal.js

Multiply using native numbers

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 7 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 7 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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

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Comparing performance of: `Multiply using Decimal.js vs Multiply using native numbers`