Benchmark: Get the only item in an array

Script Preparation code:

var array = ['bigface'];

Tests:

Using toString()
array.toString();
Using shift()
array.shift();
Using pop()
array.pop();
Using [0]
array[0];

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Using toString()
Using shift()
Using pop()
Using [0]

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 113 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Using toString()	8925737.0 Ops/sec
Using shift()	18678308.0 Ops/sec
Using pop()	19230830.0 Ops/sec
Using [0]	19428168.0 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'll break down the benchmark definition and individual test cases to explain what's being tested.

**Benchmark Definition:**
The test measures how to retrieve the only item in an array between four different approaches:

1. `array.toString()`
2. `array.shift()`
3. `array.pop()`
4. `array[0]`

These methods are compared for their performance, specifically the number of executions per second.

**Pros and Cons:**

* **Using `array.toString()`**: This method creates a string representation of the array, which can lead to unnecessary overhead due to the creation of a new object. However, it's often considered a safe option when working with arrays.
* **Using `array.shift()`**: This method removes the first element from the array and returns its value. It's generally faster than the other methods but modifies the original array.
* **Using `array.pop()`**: Similar to `shift()`, this method removes the last element from the array and returns its value, also modifying the original array.
* **Using `[0]`**: This method directly accesses the first element of the array without creating a copy or modifying the original array. It's often considered the most efficient way.

**Libraries:**
None of the test cases use any external libraries. However, it's worth noting that some JavaScript engines might have internal optimizations or implementations that could affect the results.

**Special JS Features/Syntax:** None of the test cases rely on special JavaScript features or syntax. The focus is solely on comparing different methods for retrieving a single element from an array.

**Benchmark Preparation Code:**
The preparation code `var array = ['bigface'];` creates an array with a single element, which is used as input for all test cases.

**Latest Benchmark Result:**
The result shows the performance of each method across multiple executions per second. The top-performing method varies among the test cases:

* `Using [0]`: 8925737 executions/second
* `Using pop()`: 18678308 executions/second
* `Using shift()`: 18678308 executions/second
* `Using toString()`: 19230830 executions/second

**Other Alternatives:**
In addition to the methods listed, other approaches for retrieving a single element from an array might include:

* Using `Array.prototype[Symbol.iterator]()` and then accessing the first value with `next().value`
* Using `Array.prototype.slice()` or `Array.prototype.subarray()` to create a new array with a single element
* Using `for...of` loop or `forEach()` to iterate over the array

However, these alternatives might introduce additional overhead due to object creation, iteration, or function calls. The original test cases provide a straightforward comparison of existing methods.

Related benchmarks:

Get the only item in an array (version: 0)

How do array.toString(), array.shift(), and array.pop() compare to array[0] when retrieving the only item in an array

Comparing performance of: Using toString() vs Using shift() vs Using pop() vs Using [0]

Created: one year ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

Using toString()

Using shift()

Using pop()

Using [0]

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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