Benchmark: Jquery fastest selector (fix)

HTML Preparation code:

<div id="test"></div>
<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.7.1/jquery.js'></script>

Script Preparation code:

let rootElement = $("#test");
for(let n=1; n<=1000; n++)
	rootElement.append('<div class="outer"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div class="inner">Test</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>');

Tests:

children div
$('#test').children('div');
find div
$('#test').find('div');
children .outer
$('#test').children('.outer');
find .outer
$('#test').find('.outer');
find > .outer
$('#test').find('> .outer');
#test > .outer
$('#test > .outer');

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
children div
find div
children .outer
find .outer
find > .outer
#test > .outer

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 12 days ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/128.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 128 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
children div	2807.1 Ops/sec
find div	893.5 Ops/sec
children .outer	3068.5 Ops/sec
find .outer	15934.9 Ops/sec
find > .outer	5701.5 Ops/sec
#test > .outer	5750.4 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 12 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

The benchmark defined in the provided JSON tests the performance of various jQuery selector methods on a dynamically generated set of HTML elements. The benchmark focuses on comparing the execution speed of different jQuery selector types—specifically `children` versus `find`, and selects elements based on classes and direct relationships in the HTML structure.

### Comparison of Selector Approaches:

1. **`children` Method**:
   - **Test Cases**: 
     - `$('#test').children('div');` - Selects all `div` elements that are direct children of `#test`.
     - `$('#test').children('.outer');` - Selects all `div.outer` elements that are direct children of `#test`.
   - **Pros**:
     - Fast performance as it only looks for direct children, which implies a simpler DOM traverse.
   - **Cons**:
     - Limited to selecting only direct children, which may not fit all use cases.

2. **`find` Method**:
   - **Test Cases**:
     - `$('#test').find('div');` - Selects all descendant `div` elements regardless of depth.
     - `$('#test').find('.outer');` - Selects all elements with class `.outer` not limited to direct children.
     - `$('#test').find('> .outer');` - Selects all `.outer` elements that are direct children.
   - **Pros**:
     - More versatile than `children`, as it can select descendants at any depth.
   - **Cons**:
     - Generally slower than `children` because it must traverse a more extensive part of the DOM tree, making it less efficient when only direct children are needed.

3. **Direct Selector**:
   - **Test Case**: `$('#test > .outer');` - A direct CSS-style selector that targets `.outer` elements that are direct children of `#test`.
   - **Pros**:
     - Simplicity and clarity in expressing what elements to target, leveraging the CSS selector syntax.
     - Similar performance to `children` since it also focuses on direct descendants.
   - **Cons**:
     - Same limitations as `children`; if you need elements deeper in the hierarchy, this won't suffice.

### Results Overview:

From the latest benchmark results, we see the following performance metrics (Executions Per Second):

- **Fastest**: `find .outer` at **15934.88**
  - This selector likely performs efficiently because it specifically targets elements of a certain class within the context of a known parent, allowing for optimized retrieval.
  
- **Comparatively lower performing**:
  - `#test > .outer`: **5750.40**
  - `find > .outer`: **5701.54**
  - `children .outer`: **3068.50**
  - `children div`: **2807.15**
  - `find div`: **893.47**

### Alternatives and Considerations:

In addition to jQuery, developers might consider using:
- **Vanilla JavaScript**: Using native DOM methods like `querySelector`, `querySelectorAll`, or `parentNode.children` for direct child selections. These methods typically perform better since they reduce overhead and do not require loading an entire library.
  
- **Library Alternatives**: Other libraries like `lodash` or `underscore` provide utility functions that can work with selectors but may not be directly comparable in architecture or use cases to jQuery.

- **Performance Libraries**: For performance-oriented contexts, libraries like `Sizzle`, which jQuery uses internally, can also be evaluated for raw selector performance.

### Conclusion:

This benchmark effectively highlights the importance of selecting the appropriate method based on the specific needs of a web application—where the depth of selection and performance considerations can greatly impact user experience. In many scenarios, especially in resource-constrained environments like mobile browsers, optimizing selector usage is critical for maintaining responsiveness.

Related benchmarks:

Jquery fastest selector (fix) (version: 2)

fix : jQuery was missing. new : added test '#test > .outer'. change : generate html code in preparation step

Comparing performance of: children div vs find div vs children .outer vs find .outer vs find > .outer vs #test > .outer

Created: 12 days ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

children div

find div

children .outer

find .outer

find > .outer

#test > .outer

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model gpt-4o-mini, generated 12 days ago):