Benchmark: Lodash.isEqual vs Array.toString() Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings.

HTML Preparation code:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/lodash@4.17.4/lodash.min.js"></script>

Script Preparation code:

window.foo = ['cat', 'dog', 'bird'];
window.bar = ['cat', 'dog', 'bird'];

Tests:

_.isEqual
_.isEqual(window.foo, window.bar)
Array.toString()
window.foo.toString() === window.bar.toString();

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
_.isEqual
Array.toString()

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/94.0.4606.61 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 94 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
_.isEqual	1202357.5 Ops/sec
Array.toString()	1245165.5 Ops/sec

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

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

Let's break down the benchmark and its results.

**Benchmark Purpose:**
The benchmark compares the performance of two approaches to check for equality between two arrays of strings:

1. Using `lodash.isEqual` (a utility function from the Lodash library)
2. Using a simple array comparison using `===` operator on string values converted to strings using `toString()` method

**Options Compared:**

* **Lodash.isEqual**: A utility function from the Lodash library that performs an equality check between two values, including arrays. It is designed to handle different data types and can be used for deep object comparisons as well.
* **Array.toString() === Array.toString()**: This approach converts both arrays to strings using `toString()` method and then compares these string representations using `===` operator.

**Pros and Cons:**

1. **Lodash.isEqual**
	* Pros:
		+ Designed to handle complex data structures, including arrays.
		+ Can be used for deep object comparisons.
		+ Provides a clear and concise API.
	* Cons:
		+ Requires an additional library (Lodash) to be included in the test environment.
		+ May have a slight overhead due to its utility function nature.
2. **Array.toString() === Array.toString()**
	* Pros:
		+ Does not require any additional libraries.
		+ Uses native JavaScript methods, which are typically faster and more efficient than library functions.
	* Cons:
		+ May not perform well on large arrays or complex data structures due to the need to convert them to strings.

**Library:**
The `lodash` library is a collection of reusable JavaScript functions that provide utility functionality for tasks such as:

* Array manipulation (e.g., `_.map()`, `_.filter()`).
* String manipulation (e.g., `_string.prototype.capitalize()`).
* Object manipulation (e.g., `_object.prototype.get()`, `_object.prototype.set()`).

In this benchmark, `lodash.isEqual` is used to compare the equality of two arrays.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax:**
There are no special JavaScript features or syntax used in this benchmark. It only relies on standard JavaScript language constructs and libraries (Lodash in this case).

**Other Alternatives:**

* For array comparison without converting to strings, other approaches could be used, such as:
	+ Using the `Set` data structure to compare arrays for equality.
	+ Implementing a custom equality checking function that compares elements of the arrays using a specific logic (e.g., lexicographic sorting).
* For utility functions like Lodash's `isEqual`, other alternatives could be used, such as:
	+ Other libraries (e.g., Immer.js) that provide similar functionality.
	+ Custom implementation of an equality checking function.

In conclusion, the benchmark compares two approaches to check for equality between arrays of strings: using a utility function from Lodash (`lodash.isEqual`) and a simple array comparison using `toString()` method. The choice between these approaches depends on the specific requirements of the application, such as performance, library inclusion, or complexity handling.

Related benchmarks:

Lodash.isEqual vs Array.toString() Equality Comparison for Shallow Array of Strings. (version: 0)

Test on isEqual performance

Comparing performance of: _.isEqual vs Array.toString()

Created: 5 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

_.isEqual

Array.toString()

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):