Benchmark: concat vs flat - MeasureThat.net

Tests:

flat
const array = [[1, 2, 3, 4], [5, 6, 7, 8]].flat()
cocat
const array = [1, 2, 3, 4].concat([5, 6, 7, 8]);

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
flat
cocat

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 25 days ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

I'd be happy to help you understand the JavaScript microbenchmark on MeasureThat.net.

**Benchmark Description**

The benchmark measures the performance difference between two array flattening methods in JavaScript: `concat()` and `flat()`. The test cases are designed to simulate real-world scenarios where arrays need to be flattened, such as when working with data from external sources or parsing JSON responses.

**Options Compared**

Two options are compared:

1. **`concat()`**: This method concatenates two or more arrays and returns a new array with the concatenated elements.
2. **`flat()`:** This method returns an array with all sub-array elements concatenated into it recursively up to a specified depth.

**Pros and Cons of Each Approach**

**`concat()`**:

Pros:

* Wide support across browsers and Node.js versions
* Easy to implement and understand
* Can be used for nested arrays of arbitrary depth

Cons:

* Creates a new array, which can lead to performance issues with large datasets
* Requires explicit depth specification (e.g., `flat(Infinity)`) for deep nesting

**`flat()`**:

Pros:

* More efficient than `concat()` for large datasets, as it avoids creating new arrays
* Supports optional depth specification (default is 1), making it suitable for shallow nesting

Cons:

* Limited support across older browsers and Node.js versions
* May not work as expected with very large or deeply nested arrays

**Library: undefined**

Neither `concat()` nor `flat()` uses any external libraries. They are built-in methods in JavaScript.

**Special JS Feature/ Syntax**

`flat()` is a relatively new method introduced in ECMAScript 2019 (ES10). It's an efficient way to flatten arrays, making it a popular choice among developers.

**Alternative Approaches**

Other ways to flatten arrays include:

1. **Using `reduce()`**: This method creates a new array by iteratively applying a reduction function to the elements of the original array.
2. **Using `map()` and `concat()`:** This approach involves mapping each element in the original array to an array containing that element, then concatenating those arrays together.

These alternatives may offer different trade-offs in terms of performance, readability, and support across browsers and Node.js versions.

In conclusion, the benchmark on MeasureThat.net provides a useful insight into the performance differences between two common array flattening methods in JavaScript. By understanding the pros and cons of each approach, developers can make informed decisions about which method to use depending on their specific requirements and constraints.

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one year ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/107.0.0.0 Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome 107 on Windows

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
flat	1192640.8 Ops/sec
cocat	11689631.0 Ops/sec

Related benchmarks:

concat vs flat (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: flat vs cocat

Created: one year ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

flat

cocat

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Experimental features:

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated 25 days ago):