Benchmark: innerHTML vs removeChild (checking and removing firstChild) vs removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)

HTML Preparation code:

<div id="container"></div>

Script Preparation code:

var node = document.getElementById('container');

for(var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) node.appendChild(document.createElement('div'));

Tests:

innerHTML
var node = document.getElementById('container'); node.innerHTML = '';
removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)
var node = document.getElementById('container'); while(node.firstChild) node.removeChild(node.firstChild)
removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)
var node = document.getElementById('container'); while(node.hasChildNodes()) node.removeChild(node.lastChild)

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
innerHTML
removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)
removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 4 years ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:83.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/83.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 83 on Linux

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
innerHTML	1168278.4 Ops/sec
removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)	1444613.8 Ops/sec
removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)	1402171.8 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 provided JSON and explain what's being tested, the options compared, their pros and cons, and other considerations.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark defines three test cases:

1. `innerHTML`: This test case measures the performance of setting an empty string to the `innerHTML` property of a DOM element.
2. `removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)`: This test case measures the performance of removing the first child node from a DOM element using the `removeChild` method with a check (`while(node.firstChild)`).
3. `removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)`: This test case measures the performance of removing the last child node from a DOM element using the `removeChild` method after checking if the element has any child nodes (`while(node.hasChildNodes())`).

**Script Preparation Code**

The script preparation code creates a container element with 1000 child elements, which are created dynamically using `document.createElement('div')`.

**Html Preparation Code**

The HTML preparation code includes an empty `<div>` element with the id "container", which is used as the target element for the benchmark.

**Options Compared**

The three test cases compare different approaches to remove content from a DOM element:

1. **innerHTML**: Sets an empty string to the `innerHTML` property, effectively removing all child nodes.
2. **removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)**: Removes the first child node using `removeChild` with a check (`while(node.firstChild)`).
3. **removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)**: Removes the last child node using `removeChild` after checking if the element has any child nodes (`while(node.hasChildNodes())`).

**Pros and Cons**

1. **innerHTML**: Pros:
	* Fast, as it only needs to update the element's internal representation.
	* Simple and easy to implement.
Cons:
	* Can be inefficient if the element is deeply nested or contains many child elements.
2. **removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)**: Pros:
	* More controlled approach, as it removes one node at a time.
Cons:
	* May be slower than `innerHTML`, especially for large datasets.
3. **removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)**: Pros:
	* More efficient than `innerHTML` for large datasets, as it only needs to check if the element has child nodes.
Cons:
	* Can be slower than `innerHTML` for small datasets, due to the additional check.

**Library**

The benchmark uses the `document` object and its methods (`getElementById`, `appendChild`, `removeChild`) to interact with the DOM. No external libraries are required.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

There is no special JavaScript feature or syntax used in this benchmark. It only relies on standard DOM methods and properties.

**Other Considerations**

The benchmark's performance is likely affected by factors such as:

* The number of child elements created for each test case.
* The device platform, browser version, and operating system used to run the benchmark.
* The JavaScript engine used to execute the benchmark code.
* Any optimizations or caching mechanisms implemented in the browser.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other approaches to remove content from a DOM element could include:

* Using `replaceChild` instead of `removeChild`.
* Using `textContent` instead of `innerHTML`.
* Using a library like jQuery or Pixi.js to simplify DOM manipulation.
* Using a different data structure, such as an array or a linked list, to represent the child elements.

Related benchmarks:

innerHTML vs removeChild (checking and removing firstChild) vs removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild) (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: innerHTML vs removeChild (checking and removing firstChild) vs removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)

Created: 4 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

innerHTML

removeChild (checking and removing firstChild)

removeChild (calling hasChildNodes and removing lastChild)

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):