Benchmark: json stringify vs array join 5k items

Script Preparation code:

function moreData(arr, left) {
  if(left === 0) return arr;
  else {
    arr.push(Math.floor(Math.random() * 256));
  	return moreData(arr, left - 1);
  }
}
function makeTestData() { return moreData([], 100); }

Tests:

join
makeTestData().join('-')
JSON.stringify
JSON.stringify(makeTestData());

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
join
JSON.stringify

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

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

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/94.0.4606.61 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 94 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
join	26462.2 Ops/sec
JSON.stringify	27427.4 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 data and explain what's being tested in the benchmark.

**Benchmark Definition**

The benchmark is defined by two test cases:

1. `makeTestData().join('-')`
2. `JSON.stringify(makeTestData())`

These two tests are comparing the performance of stringifying a large array using two different approaches: concatenating strings with the `join()` method and converting the array to a JSON string using the `JSON.stringify()` function.

**Library**

In both test cases, the `makeTestData()` function is used to generate a large array. This function is defined in the "Script Preparation Code" section of the benchmark definition:
```javascript
function moreData(arr, left) {
  if (left === 0) return arr;
  else {
    arr.push(Math.floor(Math.random() * 256));
    return moreData(arr, left - 1);
  }
}

function makeTestData() { return moreData([], 100); }
```
The `makeTestData()` function generates an array of 100 random numbers by recursively pushing elements onto the array using a loop. The `moreData()` function is used to generate the array.

**Options being compared**

In the first test case (`join`), the option being tested is concatenating strings with the `join()` method.

In the second test case (`JSON.stringify`), the option being tested is converting the array to a JSON string using the `JSON.stringify()` function.

**Pros and Cons of each approach**

1. **Concatenation with `join()`**
	* Pros:
		+ Simple and easy to implement
		+ Can be more efficient than creating an intermediate string object
	* Cons:
		+ Requires a fixed separator character (in this case, `-`)
		+ May not work well for large arrays or complex data structures
2. **Converting to JSON string with `JSON.stringify()`
	* Pros:
		+ Produces a compact and human-readable representation of the array
		+ Can be more efficient than concatenating strings for large datasets
	* Cons:
		+ Requires a JavaScript engine that supports native JSON parsing (e.g., modern browsers)
		+ May not work well with older browsers or non-standard data formats

**Special JS feature**

The `JSON.stringify()` function uses the ECMAScript 5 JSON object model, which is a subset of the standard JSON format. This means that the resulting string will be in a standardized format, but may not be compatible with all JSON parsers or libraries.

**Other alternatives**

If you need to compare other string concatenation methods or array conversion approaches, you can modify the `join` test case or add additional test cases using different libraries or techniques, such as:

* Using a loop to concatenate strings (e.g., `concat()` method)
* Creating an intermediate string object and then joining it with another function
* Using a library like Lodash's `_.join()` or `_stringify()` functions
* Converting the array to a CSV string using a library like Papa Parse

Keep in mind that each approach has its own trade-offs, and the best choice will depend on your specific use case and performance requirements.

Related benchmarks:

json stringify vs array join 5k items (version: 1)

Comparing performance of: join vs JSON.stringify

Created: 3 years ago by: Registered User

Jump to the latest result

join

JSON.stringify

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):