Benchmark: Switch vs Prepared Object Literal vs Prepared Array

Script Preparation code:

var objLiteral = {
  0: function() {
    console.log('A');
  },
  1: function() {
    console.log('B');
  },
  2: function() {
    console.log('C');
  }
}

var arrayLiteral = [
  function() {
    console.log('A');
  },
  function() {
    console.log('B');
  },
  function() {
    console.log('C');
  }
];

function usingSwitch(c) {
  switch (c) {
    case 0: console.log('A'); break;
    case 1: console.log('B'); break;
    case 2: console.log('C'); break;
  }
}

Tests:

Switch
usingSwitch(Math.floor(Math.random() * 3))
Object Literal
objLiteral[Math.floor(Math.random() * 3)]();
Array Literal
arrayLiteral[Math.floor(Math.random() * 3)]();

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 10 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 10 runs

Switch

165K/s

Object Literal

159K/s

Array Literal

155K/s

View exact numbers

✓ Switch: 165,153 ops/sec
• Object Literal: 159,258 ops/sec
• Array Literal: 155,085 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
Switch
Object Literal
Array Literal

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 2 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/26.5 Safari/605.1.15

Browser/OS: Safari 26 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Switch

2.4M/s

Object Literal

2.4M/s

Array Literal

2.3M/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ Switch	2,386,356 Ops/sec
Object Literal	2,360,011 Ops/sec
Array Literal	2,326,091 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the provided JSON and explore what's being tested, compared, and their pros and cons.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark is comparing three approaches to call functions with different syntax:

1. **Switch statement**: `usingSwitch(Math.floor(Math.random() * 3))`
2. **Object Literal**: `objLiteral[Math.floor(Math.random() * 3)]();`
3. **Array Literal**: `arrayLiteral[Math.floor(Math.random() * 3)]();`

**Library and Purpose**

The benchmark uses two libraries:

1. **`console.log`**: a built-in function in JavaScript that outputs the specified value to the console.
2. **`Math.random()`**: a built-in function in JavaScript that generates a random number between 0 (inclusive) and 1 (exclusive).

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

The benchmark uses the `switch` statement, which is a control structure that allows execution of code blocks based on conditions. In this case, it's used to call functions with different syntax.

Now, let's compare the three approaches:

**Switch Statement**

Pros:

* Can be more readable and maintainable for simple cases
* Allows for easy addition of new cases

Cons:

* Can lead to a long chain of `case` statements, making the code harder to read and maintain
* May not be suitable for large numbers of cases

**Object Literal**

Pros:

* Can be more concise and expressive than switch statements
* Allows for easy access to properties using bracket notation (e.g., `objLiteral[0]()`)

Cons:

* Can be less readable and maintainable for complex cases
* Requires knowledge of the object's structure to access properties

**Array Literal**

Pros:

* Can be more concise and expressive than switch statements
* Allows for easy access to functions using bracket notation (e.g., `arrayLiteral[0]()`)

Cons:

* May not be suitable for large numbers of functions
* Requires knowledge of the array's structure to access functions

**Other Considerations**

* **Performance**: The benchmark measures execution speed, which is important for performance-critical code.
* **Code Readability**: The readability of each approach can impact maintainability and debuggability.

Now that we've explored the different approaches, let's look at the benchmark results:

The current benchmark result shows that **Object Literal** has a higher execution speed (381604.90625 executions/second) compared to **Switch Statement** (373330.875 executions/second) and **Array Literal** (367839.1875 executions/second).

Keep in mind that these results may vary depending on the specific use case, JavaScript engine, and hardware.

As an alternative to this benchmark, you could consider using a different approach, such as:

* **Function Pointer**: Instead of using `switch` or object/literal notation, use function pointers (e.g., `function* foo() { ... }`) to call functions.
* **Polymorphism**: Use polymorphism techniques (e.g., inheritance) to achieve similar results without resorting to switch statements or object literals.

These alternatives may offer different trade-offs in terms of readability, maintainability, and performance.

Switch vs Prepared Object Literal vs Prepared Array (version: 0) Benchmark.js

Comparing performance of: `Switch vs Object Literal vs Array Literal`

Created: 5 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

Switch

Object Literal

Array Literal

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 10 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 10 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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

Switch vs Prepared Object Literal vs Prepared Array (version: 0) Benchmark.js

Comparing performance of: Switch vs Object Literal vs Array Literal

Created: 5 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

Switch

Object Literal

Array Literal

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 10 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 10 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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

Related benchmarks

Comparing performance of: `Switch vs Object Literal vs Array Literal`