Benchmark: Lodash isEqual test vs strict equality check

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

// 1 level deep
window.foo1 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } };
window.bar1 = { a: 1, b: 3, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } };

// 2 levels deep
window.foo2 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } };
window.bar2 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 3, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } };

// 3 levels deep
window.foo3 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2 } } };
window.bar3 = { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 2, c: { a: 1, b: 4 } } };

Tests:

_.isEqual Level 1
_.isEqual(window.foo1, window.bar1)
JSON.stringify Level 1
JSON.stringify(window.foo1) === JSON.stringify(window.bar1);
_.isEqual Level 2
_.isEqual(window.foo2, window.bar2)
JSON.stringify Level 2
JSON.stringify(window.foo2) === JSON.stringify(window.bar2);
_.isEqual Level 3
_.isEqual(window.foo3, window.bar3)
JSON.stringify Level 3
JSON.stringify(window.foo3) === JSON.stringify(window.bar3);
equality check
window.foo3 === window.bar3

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual Level 1
JSON.stringify Level 1
_.isEqual Level 2
JSON.stringify Level 2
_.isEqual Level 3
JSON.stringify Level 3
equality check

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 6 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/126.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 126 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.isEqual Level 1	2434509.0 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify Level 1	2170615.0 Ops/sec
_.isEqual Level 2	1514852.1 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify Level 2	2184838.8 Ops/sec
_.isEqual Level 3	1131484.9 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify Level 3	2192296.8 Ops/sec
equality check	8715830.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the provided benchmark and explain what is being tested, compared options, their pros and cons, and other considerations.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark tests different approaches to comparing two objects in JavaScript:

1. `_.isEqual(window.foo1, window.bar1)` (using Lodash)
2. `JSON.stringify(window.foo1) === JSON.stringify(window.bar1)`
3. `window.foo3 === window.bar3`
4. `_.isEqual(window.foo2, window.bar2)`
5. `JSON.stringify(window.foo2) === JSON.stringify(window.bar2)`
6. `JSON.stringify(window.foo3) === JSON.stringify(window.bar3)`
7. `.isEqual(window.foo3, window.bar3)` (same as option 1)

**Comparison Options**

There are two main approaches:

**Option 1: Using Lodash (`_.isEqual` function)**

Pros:

* Handles nested objects recursively
* Ignores the order of properties
* Can handle cyclic references

Cons:

* Adds external dependency on Lodash library
* May have overhead due to the need to parse and compare objects

**Option 2: Using `JSON.stringify`**

Pros:

* Fast and lightweight (only converts objects to strings)
* Does not add any dependencies or overhead

Cons:

* Ignores the order of properties
* Can be sensitive to whitespace and formatting issues
* May not work correctly with cyclic references
* Not suitable for all data formats (e.g., not JSON-serializable)

**Option 3: Using `===` (strict equality)**

Pros:

* Fast and lightweight (only compares values)
* Does not add any dependencies or overhead

Cons:

* Ignores the order of properties
* May not work correctly with nested objects
* Can be sensitive to whitespace and formatting issues
* Not suitable for all data formats (e.g., not JSON-serializable)

**Other Considerations**

* The benchmark uses a mix of shallow and deep object comparisons.
* The objects being compared are relatively small, but the depth of nesting can vary between cases.
* The `JSON.stringify` option may be more suitable for simple data formats, while `.isEqual` might be better suited for more complex data structures.

**Library Used**

Lodash is a popular utility library that provides a range of functions for working with JavaScript objects, including `_.isEqual`. It helps to simplify the comparison process and provides a robust implementation that can handle various edge cases.

In summary, the benchmark tests three different approaches to comparing objects in JavaScript: using Lodash's `_.isEqual` function, `JSON.stringify`, and strict equality (`===`). The choice of approach depends on the specific use case and requirements.

Related benchmarks:

Lodash isEqual test vs strict equality check (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance vs immutable

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual Level 1 vs JSON.stringify Level 1 vs _.isEqual Level 2 vs JSON.stringify Level 2 vs _.isEqual Level 3 vs JSON.stringify Level 3 vs equality check

Created: 4 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual Level 1

JSON.stringify Level 1

_.isEqual Level 2

JSON.stringify Level 2

_.isEqual Level 3

JSON.stringify Level 3

equality check

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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