Benchmark: Regex vs split 3

Script Preparation code:

var str = 'image/png';

Tests:

Regex
str.split(/\//);
Split
str.split('/')

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
Regex
Split

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 26 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'd be happy to explain the benchmark and its results.

**Benchmark Overview**

The provided JSON represents a microbenchmark on two approaches: regular expression (`Regex`) and string splitting using the `/` character (`Split`). The benchmark is designed to test which approach is faster for splitting a given string, `str`, containing the substring `'image/png'`.

**Script Preparation Code**

Before running each benchmark, the script preparation code creates a variable `str` with the value `'image/png'`. This variable is used as input for both the `Regex` and `Split` benchmarks.

**Benchmark Definitions**

The benchmark definitions are two separate tests:

1. **Regex**: The first test uses the `str.split(/\\//)` expression, which attempts to split the string at each occurrence of `\//`, escaping backslashes (`\`) before splitting. This is a valid regex pattern.
2. **Split**: The second test uses the `str.split('/')` expression, which splits the string at each occurrence of `/`.

**Options Compared**

The two approaches differ in how they handle the `/` character:

*   **Regex Splitting (\\//)**: In this approach, the backslash (`\`) is escaped before splitting. This ensures that the backslash is treated as a literal character and not as an escape character.
*   **String Splitting (/)**: In this approach, the forward slash `/` is used directly to split the string. However, this can lead to unexpected behavior if the input string contains nested slashes or other special characters.

**Pros and Cons**

Here are some pros and cons of each approach:

*   **Regex Splitting (\\//)**:
    *   Pros:
        *   Allows for more complex splitting patterns using regular expressions.
        *   Can handle various edge cases, such as escaped characters or nested slashes.
    *   Cons:
        *   Requires knowledge of regex syntax and may be overkill for simple string splitting tasks.
*   **String Splitting (/)**:
    *   Pros:
        *   Simple to implement and use, especially for basic string splitting needs.
        *   Can be faster for very large strings since it avoids the overhead of regular expression execution.
    *   Cons:
        *   May not handle edge cases well, such as nested slashes or special characters.

**Library Usage**

Neither of the benchmark tests uses a specific library. The regex pattern in the `Regex` test is built-in to JavaScript, while the `/` character used in the `Split` test is also built-in.

**Special JS Features or Syntax**

The benchmark does not use any special JavaScript features or syntax that would impact its understanding for a wide range of software engineers. However, it's worth noting that the `str.split(/\\//)` expression uses a valid regex pattern and exploits the behavior of backslashes in JavaScript strings.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other alternatives to compare in this benchmark might include:

*   Using a library like Lodash or Ramda for string manipulation and splitting.
*   Implementing a custom string splitting algorithm using a different approach, such as using a binary search tree.
*   Comparing the performance of regular expression engines like `RegExp` versus built-in JavaScript regex patterns.

These alternatives could provide additional insights into string splitting performance and efficiency but may add complexity to the benchmark setup.

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:92.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/92.0

Browser/OS: Firefox 92 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
Regex	6592241.5 Ops/sec
Split	7329086.0 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

Regex vs split 3 (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: Regex vs Split

Created: 3 years ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

Regex

Split

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 26 days ago):