Benchmark: eval vs json parse 2

Tests:

eval
var crop = eval('[1,2,3,4];');
parse
var crop = JSON.parse('[1,2,3,4]');

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
eval
parse

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/125.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome Mobile 125 on Android

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
eval	1000324.1 Ops/sec
parse	1267104.9 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 benchmark and explain what's being tested.

**What is being tested?**

The website MeasureThat.net provides JavaScript microbenchmarks where users can create and run benchmarks to compare the performance of different approaches. The current benchmark compares two ways to parse a JSON string:

1. **eval()**: Evaluates a string as JavaScript code.
2. **JSON.parse()**: Parses a JSON string into a JavaScript object.

**Options compared**

The benchmark is comparing the execution speed of these two options on a sample JSON string: `[1,2,3,4]`.

**Pros and Cons of each approach**

**eval():**

Pros:

* Simple to implement in most programming languages
* Can be used for more complex parsing tasks beyond just JSON

Cons:

* Can execute arbitrary code, making it vulnerable to security threats (e.g., Code Injection)
* Performance is often slower due to the overhead of executing JavaScript code at runtime

**JSON.parse():**

Pros:

* Specifically designed for parsing JSON data
* Generally faster than eval() since it doesn't execute arbitrary code

Cons:

* Requires a separate import or declaration of the `JSON` object (in older browsers)
* Can only parse JSON strings, not other types of data

**Other considerations**

When using eval(), it's essential to validate and sanitize any input data to prevent security breaches. On the other hand, JSON.parse() provides a safer and more controlled way to handle JSON data.

The benchmark results show that **JSON.parse()** is generally faster than **eval()**, which is expected given their respective design purposes and performance characteristics.

**Library usage**

In this benchmark, neither `eval()` nor `JSON.parse()` relies on any external libraries. However, it's worth noting that in some browsers, the `JSON` object might be implemented using a library or module (e.g., in older versions of Chrome).

No special JavaScript features or syntax are used in these benchmarks beyond standard ECMAScript 5 and later.

**Alternatives**

If you want to compare performance with other methods for parsing JSON data, some alternatives include:

* Using a dedicated JSON parser library like `json-stringify-safe` (a popular choice among Node.js developers)
* Implementing your own custom JSON parser using techniques like recursive descent parsing or LL(1) parsing
* Leveraging the browser's built-in `atob()` and `JSON.parse()` functions for base64-encoded JSON strings

Keep in mind that each approach has its trade-offs, and the choice ultimately depends on your specific use case, performance requirements, and personal preferences.

Related benchmarks:

eval vs json parse 2 (version: 0)

eval vs json parse 2

Comparing performance of: eval vs parse

Created: 4 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

eval

parse

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):