Let's break down the benchmark definition and test cases to understand what's being tested.

Benchmark Definition

The provided JSON represents a benchmark that compares two approaches:

1. Date.parse()
2. new Date().getTime()

What are these approaches?

• Date.parse() is a method that parses a date string in the format "YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ" (where Z denotes UTC time zone). It returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.
• new Date().getTime() creates a new Date object and returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC.

Options compared

The benchmark compares the execution performance of these two approaches. The test measures how many executions per second each approach can handle on the provided machine (Mac OS X 10.15.7, Chrome 90).

Pros and Cons

• Date.parse():
  • Pros: Can parse a wide range of date formats, including ISO 8601.
  • Cons: May be slower due to its parsing logic.
• new Date().getTime():
  • Pros: Generally faster than Date.parse() since it's a direct access to the system clock.
  • Cons: Only works with a specific date format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ).

Library usage

The benchmark uses Moment.js, a popular JavaScript library for working with dates and times. It provides an efficient way to parse date strings.

Special JS feature or syntax

There are no special JS features or syntax used in this benchmark.

Other alternatives

Other approaches that could be compared include:

• Using Date.now() instead of new Date().getTime()
• Using a third-party library like date-fns or Luxon
• Using a custom implementation to parse the date string

Keep in mind that the choice of approach depends on the specific use case and performance requirements.

In this benchmark, Date.parse() is compared to new Date().getTime() because Date.parse() can handle a wider range of date formats, but may be slower due to its parsing logic. The goal is to determine which approach provides better performance in terms of executions per second.