Benchmark: Math.pow(,2) vs **2 vs *

Tests:

pow
var tmp = Math.pow(6, 2);
**
var tmp = 6 ** 2;
*
var tmp = 6 * 6;

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
pow
**
*

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: 5 months ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36

Browser/OS: Chrome Mobile 124 on Android

View result in a separate tab

Test name	Executions per second
pow	2495742.2 Ops/sec
**	478960224.0 Ops/sec
*	473499808.0 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.

**Benchmark Definition**

The test is comparing three different ways to calculate the square of a number: `Math.pow(6, 2)`, `6 ** 2`, and `6 * 6`. The goal is to determine which method is the fastest in various JavaScript environments.

**Options Compared**

1. `Math.pow(6, 2)`: This method uses the `pow` function from the `Math` object. It's a standard way to calculate powers in JavaScript.
2. `6 ** 2`: This method uses the exponentiation operator (`**`). It's a shorthand for "raise to the power of".
3. `6 * 6`: This method uses multiplication to calculate the square.

**Pros and Cons**

* `Math.pow(6, 2)`:
	+ Pros: Portable across different browsers and environments.
	+ Cons: May be slower due to the overhead of calling a function.
* `6 ** 2`:
	+ Pros: Faster than `pow` in modern JavaScript engines.
	+ Cons: Not supported in older browsers or environments that don't implement this operator.
* `6 * 6`:
	+ Pros: Simple and easy to understand.
	+ Cons: May not be as efficient as the other two methods, especially for large numbers.

**Library/Functionality Used**

None of these tests use any external libraries. They are all built-in JavaScript functions or operators.

**Special JS Feature/Syntax**

The exponentiation operator (`**) is a relatively new feature in JavaScript, introduced in ECMAScript 2016 (ES6). It's supported by most modern browsers and engines, but may not be available in older ones. The `Math.pow` function is an older way of calculating powers and has been around since the early days of JavaScript.

**Other Alternatives**

If you wanted to test other methods for calculating squares, some alternatives could include:

* Using a dedicated library like MathJS or Exponent
* Implementing a custom square calculation function using bitwise operations (e.g., `x * x`)
* Using a different mathematical algorithm, such as the Babylonian method

However, these alternatives are not typically used in production code and would likely be slower than the built-in methods tested here.

Related benchmarks:

Math.pow(,2) vs **2 vs * (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: pow vs ** vs *

Created: 6 months ago by: Guest

Jump to the latest result

pow

**

*

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):