Benchmark: Math.max() vs Array.reduce()

Script Preparation code:

var values = new Array(5000);

for (let i = 0; i < values.length; ++i) {
    values[i] = i % 20;
}

Tests:

Math.max
return Math.max(...values);
Reduce
return values.reduce((prev, curr) => { if (curr > prev) return curr; return prev; }, 0);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Math.max
Reduce

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 5 hours 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
Math.max	134254.1 Ops/sec
Reduce	819485.6 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 explain what's being tested, compared, and the pros and cons of each approach.

**What's being tested?**

The benchmark compares the speed of two approaches: `Math.max()` and `Array.reduce()` for finding the maximum value in an array. The test case uses a large array of 5000 elements, where each element is assigned a random value between 0 and 19 (inclusive).

**Options compared:**

1. **Math.max()**: This function returns the largest of zero or more numbers.
2. **Array.reduce()**: This method applies a reduction function to all elements in an array.

**Pros and cons of each approach:**

* **Math.max():**
	+ Pros:
		- Simple, straightforward implementation.
		- Fast execution since it's a built-in function optimized for performance.
	+ Cons:
		- May not be suitable for custom reduction functions or complex logic.
		- Not designed to handle large arrays efficiently (it uses a brute-force approach).
* **Array.reduce():**
	+ Pros:
		- Flexible and reusable for various reduction tasks.
		- Can handle large arrays efficiently using a accumulator-based approach.
	+ Cons:
		- May require more code and complexity for simple use cases.
		- Not optimized for performance like Math.max().

**Library/Function used:**

None explicitly mentioned in the provided JSON. However, `Array.reduce()` is a standard JavaScript method that's widely supported across modern browsers and Node.js environments.

**Special JS feature/syntax:**

The test case uses no special JavaScript features or syntax beyond what's standard for ES5 compatibility.

**Other considerations:**

* The benchmark focuses solely on the speed comparison between Math.max() and Array.reduce(). It doesn't account for other factors like code readability, maintainability, or error handling.
* The random array generation might not accurately represent real-world scenarios where data is generated in different ways (e.g., user input, file I/O).

**Alternatives:**

If you want to explore alternative approaches for finding the maximum value in an array:

1. **Using a custom function**: Create a reusable function that iterates over the array and returns the maximum value.
2. **Using `Array.prototype.max()`**: Some modern browsers support this polyfill, which provides a more efficient implementation of Math.max() on arrays.

Keep in mind that these alternatives might not provide significant performance benefits compared to the built-in methods or Array.reduce().

Related benchmarks:

Math.max() vs Array.reduce() (version: 0)

Compare speed of Math.max() vs Array.reduce().

Comparing performance of: Math.max vs Reduce

Created: 5 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Math.max

Reduce

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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