Benchmark: if else return vs return

Script Preparation code:

function sayHello1(name) {
  if(name.length > 10) {
     return `Wow ${name}, you have a very long name.`
  } else {
     return `Hello, ${name}!`
  }
}

function sayHello2(name) {
  if(name.length > 10) {
     return `Wow ${name}, you have a very long name.`
  }
  return `Hello, ${name}!`
}

Tests:

if else
sayHello1('janry')
return
sayHello2('janry')

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
if else
return

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'd be happy to help explain the provided benchmark.

**Overview**

The provided JSON represents a JavaScript microbenchmark, which is a small program designed to measure the performance of specific JavaScript code snippets. The benchmark compares two alternatives for returning values from a function: `if-else` vs `return`.

**Script Preparation Code**

The script preparation code provides the base functions, `sayHello1` and `sayHello2`, that will be tested in the benchmark.

*   `sayHello1(name)`:
    *   Checks if the input name has a length greater than 10.
    *   If true, returns a string with a personalized message.
    *   If false, returns a default greeting.
*   `sayHello2(name)`:
    *   Checks if the input name has a length greater than 10.
    *   If true, returns a string with a personalized message (just like in `sayHello1`).
    *   Immediately returns a default greeting, bypassing the conditional check.

**Html Preparation Code**

The html preparation code is empty, indicating that no HTML-related setup or cleanup is required for this benchmark.

**Individual Test Cases**

There are two test cases:

*   `if else`: This test case runs the `sayHello1` function with a name of `'janry'`.
*   `return`: This test case runs the `sayHello2` function with a name of `'janry'`.

**Options Compared**

The benchmark compares two options for returning values from a function:

1.  **If-Else Approach**: This approach uses an if-else statement to check the condition and return the corresponding value.
    *   Pros:
        *   More readable code, as it clearly conveys the intention of the function.
        *   Allows for more flexibility in handling different conditions or cases.
    *   Cons:
        *   Can be slower due to the overhead of evaluating conditional statements.
        *   May lead to more complex logic if multiple conditions need to be checked.
2.  **Return Statement Approach**: This approach uses a single return statement with an immediately invoked expression (IIFE) to bypass the conditional check and directly return the desired value.
    *   Pros:
        *   Faster execution, as it avoids the overhead of conditional evaluation.
        *   Can lead to more concise code and easier maintenance.
    *   Cons:
        *   Less readable code, as it can be harder to understand the intention behind the IIFE.

**Library Used**

None explicitly mentioned in this benchmark. However, some JavaScript engines might use optimizations or libraries that could potentially affect the performance of these functions.

**Special JS Feature/ Syntax**

The test case uses ES6-style return statements and template literals (the `${name}` syntax), which are specific to modern JavaScript versions. These features can influence the execution speed or behavior of the code, but their impact is typically negligible in this context.

**Alternatives**

Some alternatives for benchmarking JavaScript performance include:

1.  **Benchmark.js**: A popular, lightweight, and highly customizable benchmarking library for Node.js.
2.  **Benchmark-HA**: Another widely used benchmarking library that focuses on high accuracy and reproducibility.
3.  **jsbench**: A simple, yet effective, benchmarking tool specifically designed for JavaScript.
4.  **Google's Benchmark**: An open-source library developed by Google for building and running performance benchmarks.

Keep in mind that each of these alternatives has its strengths and weaknesses, and the choice ultimately depends on your specific needs and requirements.

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/131.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 131 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
if else	13989588.0 Ops/sec
return	12869427.0 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

if else return vs return (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: if else vs return

Created: 11 months ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

if else

return

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):