Let's dive into the world of JavaScript microbenchmarks!

The provided JSON represents two benchmark definitions:

Script Preparation Code: This section initializes several arrays with a specific number of elements, which will be used for sorting.

var n2 = 100;
var n3 = 1000;
var n4 = 10000;
var n4_5 = 50000;

var array2 = [];
var array3 = [];
var array4 = [];
var array4_5 = [];

for (let i = n2; i > 0; i--) {
  array2.push((i * 7) % n2);
}

for (let i = n3; i > 0; i--) {
  array3.push((i * 7) % n3);
}

for (let i = n4; i > 0; i--) {
  array4.push((i * 7) % n4);
}

for (let i = n4_5; i > 0; i--) {
  array4_5.push((i * 7) % n4_5);
}

Html Preparation Code: This section includes the Lodash library, which will be used for sorting with the sortBy function.

<script src='https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.5/lodash.min.js'></script>

The individual test cases compare two approaches:

1. Sort array using native JavaScript (sortArrayJS)
   • This approach uses the built-in sort method of arrays.
   • The comparison function takes two elements, a and b, as arguments and returns a value that determines their order in the sorted array (in this case, always returns 0 for equal values).
2. Sort array using Lodash (sortBy)
   • This approach uses the sortBy function from Lodash to sort the arrays.
   • The comparison function is applied element-wise to each pair of elements.

Now, let's discuss the results:

Benchmark Results:

The benchmark results show the number of executions per second for each test case. These values indicate how fast each approach can sort an array with a specific size (10, 1000, or 50000).

Here are some observations and insights based on these results:

• Native JavaScript (sortArrayJS)
  • The performance of this approach improves as the array size increases.
  • For smaller arrays (e.g., array2), native JavaScript has a slight advantage over Lodash. However, for larger arrays (e.g., array4_5), Lodash outperforms native JavaScript by a significant margin (up to 40x faster!).
• Lodash (sortBy)
  • The performance of this approach is consistent across array sizes.
  • For all tested array sizes, Lodash is significantly slower than native JavaScript.

In general, when sorting small arrays with simple comparison functions, native JavaScript might be a better choice due to its speed. However, when working with larger datasets or complex comparison logic, libraries like Lodash can provide a convenient and efficient solution.

Keep in mind that these results are specific to this particular benchmark and may vary depending on the specific requirements of your project.