Benchmark: split string vs regex

Tests:

string split
'test\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother'.split('\t')
regex split
'test\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother\tanother'.split(/\t/g)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
string split
regex split

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 26 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's dive into the explanation of the provided benchmark.

**Benchmark Overview**

The provided benchmark measures the performance difference between two approaches to splitting a string: using the `split()` method without any arguments, and using regular expressions with the `/` character as the delimiter.

**Options Compared**

There are two options compared:

1. **String Split (without regex)**: This option uses the built-in `split()` method without any arguments. This method splits a string into an array of substrings based on the presence of whitespace characters.
2. **Regex Split**: This option uses regular expressions with the `/` character as the delimiter to split the string. The `/` character is escaped by adding a backslash (`\`) before it.

**Pros and Cons**

* **String Split (without regex)**:
	+ Pros: Simple, easy to understand, and widely supported.
	+ Cons: May not work well with non-ASCII characters or complex delimiters.
* **Regex Split**:
	+ Pros: More flexible and powerful than the string split method, can handle complex delimiters and non-ASCII characters.
	+ Cons: Can be slower due to the overhead of regular expressions, and may require more maintenance if the delimiter pattern changes.

**Library Used**

There is no library used in this benchmark. The `split()` method is a built-in JavaScript function that splits a string into an array of substrings based on whitespace characters.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

The benchmark uses a feature called "raw UA string" to identify the browser being tested. This allows the benchmark to exclude results from browsers that are not participating in the test. The `RawUAString` field contains the string representation of the browser's user agent, which is used to determine the browser type and version.

**Other Considerations**

* The benchmark uses a single string with multiple tabs (`\t`) as the input data.
* The benchmark does not account for edge cases such as empty strings or null inputs.
* The benchmark assumes that the system has sufficient resources to execute the code quickly, without considering factors like memory usage or disk I/O.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other alternatives for string splitting could include:

1. **Using a different delimiter**: Instead of using whitespace characters, you could use a custom delimiter, such as a comma or semicolon.
2. **Using a more efficient algorithm**: Depending on the specific requirements of your application, you may be able to implement an optimized algorithm that splits strings more efficiently than the built-in `split()` method.
3. **Using a library or framework**: Some libraries or frameworks, such as jQuery or Lodash, provide additional string splitting functions that may offer better performance or features.

Overall, the benchmark provides a good starting point for understanding the performance difference between the built-in `split()` method and regular expressions with delimiters. However, it's essential to consider other factors, such as edge cases and system resources, when choosing an approach for your specific use case.

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 3 years ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/89.0.4389.128 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 89 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
string split	9070058.0 Ops/sec
regex split	56371.4 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

split string vs regex (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: string split vs regex split

Created: 7 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

string split

regex split

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 26 days ago):