Benchmark: stringify vs lodash comparing array of objects

HTML Preparation code:

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.5/lodash.min.js'></script>

Script Preparation code:

window.a = [];
window.b = [];
for (i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
    const newObj = {
        id: i,
        value: i.toString()
    };
    window.a.push(newObj);
    window.b.push(newObj);
}

Tests:

_.isEqual
_.isEqual(window.a, window.b)
JSON.stringify
JSON.stringify(window.a) === JSON.stringify(window.b);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual
JSON.stringify

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/97.0.4692.99 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 97 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.isEqual	375207.8 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify	8567.8 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the world of MeasureThat.net and explore what's being tested in this specific benchmark.

**Benchmark Overview**

The benchmark is designed to compare two approaches: using the `_.isEqual` function from Lodash and using the built-in `JSON.stringify` method. The test creates an array of 500 objects with unique properties, `id` and `value`, and then compares the equality of these arrays using both methods.

**Options Compared**

Two options are being compared:

1. **Lodash's _.isEqual**: This function is designed to recursively compare two values for deep equality. In this case, it will check if the arrays `window.a` and `window.b` have the same structure and value at each position.
2. **JSON.stringify**: This method converts JavaScript objects to a string format, allowing us to compare the strings by using the `===` operator.

**Pros and Cons**

1. **Lodash's _.isEqual**:
	* Pros: Efficient for comparing complex data structures, robust implementation with handling various edge cases (e.g., null, undefined, and primitive values).
	* Cons: Requires Lodash library to be included in the test environment, which may add unnecessary overhead.
2. **JSON.stringify**:
	* Pros: Lightweight, built-in method that can be used without external libraries.
	* Cons: May not work as expected for deep comparison of objects with cyclic references or complex data structures.

**Library and Purpose**

Lodash is a popular JavaScript utility library that provides a wide range of functions for tasks like array manipulation, object transformation, and more. In this benchmark, Lodash's `_.isEqual` function is used to compare the arrays, providing a robust and efficient implementation for deep equality checks.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

In this benchmark, we're using the `window.a` and `window.b` variables to create and manipulate arrays, which are not directly related to any special JavaScript features. However, it's worth noting that `JSON.stringify` relies on JavaScript's object serialization mechanism, which may have variations in behavior depending on the browser or environment used.

**Other Alternatives**

If you're interested in exploring alternative approaches for comparing arrays, here are a few options:

1. **Array.prototype.every()**: Instead of using Lodash's `_.isEqual`, you could use the `every()` method to check if every element in one array matches every element in another.
2. **Array.prototype.reduce()**: You could use the `reduce()` method to compare arrays by accumulating a result that indicates whether all elements match.
3. **Manual implementation**: If performance is critical, you could implement a custom function to compare arrays, potentially using techniques like binary search or iterative methods.

These alternatives might offer different trade-offs in terms of readability, maintainability, and performance, depending on the specific requirements of your use case.

Related benchmarks:

stringify vs lodash comparing array of objects (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs JSON.stringify

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual

JSON.stringify

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):