Let's break down the provided benchmark and explain what's being tested, compared, and the pros/cons of each approach.

What is being tested?

MeasureThat.net is testing two different approaches to splitting an array of strings into individual elements:

1. Array: The first test case uses a JavaScript array (var a = [...]) and attempts to extract individual elements from it.
2. String split: The second test case uses the split() method on a string literal ("..."), which splits the string into an array of substrings.

Options compared

The two options being compared are:

1. Using a JavaScript array to represent a collection of strings, and attempting to extract individual elements from it.
2. Using the split() method on a string literal to split it into an array of substrings.

Pros and Cons of each approach:

1. Array: This approach has some advantages:
   • It's more explicit about representing a collection of values.
   • It allows for easy iteration over the elements using traditional loops (e.g., for loop, forEach()).
   • However, it can be less efficient than using split() because JavaScript arrays are not designed to be iterated over in the same way as strings.
2. String split: This approach has some advantages:
   • It's often more concise and readable than using an array.
   • The split() method is optimized for this specific use case, making it generally faster than using an array.
   • However, it can be less explicit about representing a collection of values.

Library usage

There is no library explicitly mentioned in the benchmark definition or individual test cases. However, some libraries may indirectly influence the results by optimizing string splitting algorithms or providing more efficient data structures (e.g., String.prototype.split() might be optimized differently than a custom implementation).

Special JS feature/syntax

The only special feature/syntax mentioned is the use of array literals (var a = [...];) and template literals ("..."), which are standard JavaScript features.

Other alternatives

If you wanted to test alternative approaches, some options could include:

1. Using regular expressions to split strings.
2. Implementing a custom string splitting algorithm using String.prototype.replace() or Array.prototype.map().
3. Testing the performance of different data structures (e.g., Set, Map) for storing and iterating over strings.

It's worth noting that MeasureThat.net already covers some common use cases, so adding more alternative approaches might not be as relevant to the benchmarking process.