Benchmark: Is comparing number faster than comparing date objects

Tests:

test equality
var d1 = new Date(); var d2 = new Date(); var n = 0; while(true) { if (d1 > d2) { } n++; if(n===10000) break; }
test strict equality
var d1 = "1673866117"; var d2 = "1673866112"; var n = 0; while(true) { if (d1 > d2) { } n++; if(n===10000) break; }

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
test equality
test strict equality

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one year ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/108.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 108 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
test equality	829.3 Ops/sec
test strict equality	257860.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'd be happy to help explain the benchmark and its results.

**What is being tested?**

The provided JSON represents two microbenchmarks that compare the performance of comparing numbers versus comparing date objects using strict equality (===) versus loose equality (==).

In JavaScript, there are two types of comparison operators:

*   `>` (greater than): Compares the values of two operands and returns a boolean indicating whether the first operand is greater than the second.
*   `===` (strict equal to): Compares the values of two operands using both value and type. If the operands have different types, it throws a TypeError.

The benchmarks test which approach is faster: comparing numbers using loose equality (`==`) or strict equality (`===`).

**Options compared**

There are two options being compared:

1.  **Loose Equality (`==`)**: Compares the values of two operands without considering their types.
2.  **Strict Equality (`===`)**: Compares the values and types of two operands.

**Pros and Cons**

*   **Loose Equality (`==`):**
    *   Pros:
        *   More intuitive and easier to read, as it allows for implicit type conversions.
        *   Can be faster due to fewer checks required.
    *   Cons:
        *   May lead to unexpected behavior if the operands have different types (e.g., comparing a string with an integer).
*   **Strict Equality (`===`):**
    *   Pros:
        *   Ensures accurate results by considering both value and type of operands.
        *   Can help prevent unexpected behavior due to implicit type conversions.
    *   Cons:
        *   May be slower due to additional checks required.

**Library**

There is no external library being used in these benchmarks. The tests are purely vanilla JavaScript, with the exception of some built-in functions and data types (e.g., `Date`, strings).

**Special JS feature or syntax**

The benchmarks utilize a special JavaScript feature: `while` loops. This loop construct allows for the execution of an infinite loop (`while (true)`) which is used to repeat the comparison operation multiple times.

**Benchmark Preparation Code and Individual Test Cases**

The benchmark preparation code is not provided, but it appears that both test cases are using a similar structure:

1.  Declare variables `d1` and `d2` with the same value.
2.  Initialize a counter variable `n` to 0.
3.  Use an infinite loop (`while (true)`) to repeat the comparison operation multiple times.

The individual test cases differ only in the type of values used for comparison: dates (`Date` objects) versus numbers (`string literals`).

Related benchmarks:

Is comparing number faster than comparing date objects (version: 0)

Is there a performance benefit to replacing == with ===?

Comparing performance of: test equality vs test strict equality

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

test equality

test strict equality

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):