Benchmark: tagname vs classname

HTML Preparation code:

<div class="ebsta-complex-add-search-container"><input class="ebsta-complex-add-search-input" placeholder="Search Name"><span class="ebsta-complex-add-magnifyicon"></span></div>

Script Preparation code:

var searchContainerElement = document.getElementsByClassName("ebsta-complex-add-search-container")[0];

Tests:

classname
searchContainerElement.getElementsByClassName("ebsta-complex-add-search-input");
tagname
searchContainerElement.getElementsByClassName("input");

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
classname
tagname

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'll break down the provided JSON data and explain what's being tested, compared, and what the pros and cons are for each approach.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark definition is a string that represents a JavaScript code snippet. In this case, there are two benchmarks:

1. `searchContainerElement.getElementsByClassName("ebsta-complex-add-search-input");` (Test Name: "classname")
2. `searchContainerElement.getElementsByClassName("input");` (Test Name: "tagname")

The first benchmark uses the `getElementsByClassName()` method with a class name (`"ebsta-complex-add-search-input"`), while the second benchmark uses an HTML tag name (`"input"`).

**Script Preparation Code**

The script preparation code is a JavaScript snippet that sets up the environment for the benchmark. In this case, it:

```javascript
var searchContainerElement = document.getElementsByClassName("ebsta-complex-add-search-container")[0];
```

This code retrieves the first element with the class name `"ebsta-complex-add-search-container"` and assigns it to the `searchContainerElement` variable.

**Html Preparation Code**

The html preparation code is a string that represents the HTML structure used for the benchmark. In this case:

```html
<div class="ebsta-complex-add-search-container"><input class="ebsta-complex-add-magnifyicon"></span><input class="ebsta-complex-add-input" placeholder="Search Name"></div>
```

This HTML snippet creates a `div` element with the class name `"ebsta-complex-add-search-container"` and two child elements: an input field with the class name `"ebsta-complex-add-magnifyicon"` (not used in the benchmark) and another input field with the class name `"ebsta-complex-add-input"`.

**Libraries**

There are no libraries mentioned in the provided data. However, it's likely that the `getElementsByClassName()` method is implemented by a library or framework that provides DOM manipulation functionality.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

None of the provided code snippets use any special JavaScript features or syntax that require additional explanation.

**Comparison and Pros/Cons**

The two benchmarks compare the performance of using class names versus tag names to retrieve elements in the `document.getElementsByClassName()` method. Here's a brief summary:

1. **Tag name ( classname )**: Uses the `getElementsByClassName()` method with a tag name (`"input"`). This approach is generally faster than using classes because it allows the browser to use its internal caching mechanisms for fast lookups.
	* Pros:
		+ Faster performance due to caching and lookup efficiency
	* Cons:
		+ Limited flexibility (can't use multiple classes)
2. **Class name**: Uses the `getElementsByClassName()` method with a class name (`"ebsta-complex-add-search-input"`). This approach allows for more flexible naming conventions, but can be slower due to the overhead of searching through all possible elements.
	* Pros:
		+ More flexible naming conventions
	* Cons:
		+ Slower performance due to search overhead

**Other Considerations**

When choosing between using class names and tag names, consider the following:

* If you need to retrieve a specific element based on its class name, use class names.
* If you need to iterate over multiple elements that share a common ancestor with a specific class name, use classes.
* If performance is critical, using tag names might be faster for simple lookups.

**Alternatives**

Other alternatives for retrieving elements include:

1. `querySelector()` and `querySelectorAll()`: These methods allow for more flexible selection syntax and are generally faster than `getElementsByClassName()`. However, they require HTML5 support.
2. `document.querySelectorAll()` with CSS selectors: This method allows for more expressive and efficient element retrieval using CSS selectors.

In summary, the benchmark tests the performance difference between using class names versus tag names to retrieve elements in the `document.getElementsByClassName()` method. While classes offer more flexibility, they can be slower due to search overhead. Tag names provide faster performance but are limited to a single class name.

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 7 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/123.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 123 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
classname	11461523.0 Ops/sec
tagname	11000673.0 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

tagname vs classname (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: classname vs tagname

Created: 8 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

classname

tagname

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):