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 }

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 month 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

Test name	Executions per second
Multiply using Decimal.js	2122.0 Ops/sec
Multiply using native numbers	2646488.8 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 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.

Related benchmarks:

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

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

Created: 4 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Multiply using Decimal.js

Multiply using native numbers

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):