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Muhammad A Faishal
Muhammad A Faishal

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Benchmarking String Literal ("") vs Template Literal (``) - using Performance.now()

Let's talk about String in JavaScript. There are 2 ways developers can define a string:

a. Using String Literal



const str = "Hello " + "world!";


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b. Using Template Literal



const worldText = "world!"
const str = `Hello ${worldText}`;


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So, have you ever wondered what the difference between the tow? Which one do you usually use? Is the one you're using better?

Let's find out by doing performance test.

Benchmarking

Here are the test case and String Literal and Template Literal used for benchmarking.

Test Case



const iterations = ITERATION_TOTAL // 10, 100, 10000, 1000000
const stringText = 'string'
let text = ''

const start = performance.now()

for (let i = 0; i < iterations; i++) {
  // String or Template literal test case here
}

const end = performance.now()

console.log(`It took ${end - start} ms.`);


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String Literal



text = "text"


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Template Literal



text = `text`


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String Literal concatenating a String



text = "text " + stringText


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Template Literal concatenating a String



text = `text ${stringText}`


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String Literal concatenating Two Strings



text = stringText + " text " + stringText


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Template Literal concatenating Two Strings



text = `${stringText} text ${stringText}`


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I ran the tests on Node Js v18.17.0 with different loop iterations: 10, 100, 10,000, 100,000, and 1,000,000. I measured the average times for each iteration.

Result

Here are the results for each iteration (the lower is better):

10 Iterations

String literal & Template literal

100 Iterations

String literal & Template literal

1,000 Iterations

String literal & Template literal

100,000 Iterations

String literal & Template literal

1,000,000 Iterations

String literal & Template literal

Conclusion

It's still good to use both String Literal & Template Literal in simple iteration, displaying a limited items. The results showed a slightly different between the two which is still acceptable.

When dealing with processing large datasets, complex algorithm, generating long strings, using React components that frequently re-render that require a large number of iterations, String Literal is the only one to go.

It's important to understand that not every method is the best fit for every case and project. There might be some trade-offs to consider.

Top comments (24)

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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy πŸŽ–οΈ

You should really test in more than one environment. What holds true in NodeJS may not hold true in other JS engines.

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal • Edited

Yeah, that is possible. I chose Node JS because it's currently the most popular JavaScript runtime used by many developers.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll make a note of it.

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot ⭐

Isn't Chrome probably the most popular JavaScript runtime?

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal

yeah, it can also, but Chrome is different thing. I meant between Node, Deno, and Bun.

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jamesthomson profile image
James Thomson

They both use the same engine, V8, so much of a muchness, really.

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imista profile image
Benjamin Rodriguez

It's amazing! I never think about the difference

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal

I'm glad I could help!

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot ⭐ • Edited

My tests show that concat is faster if the strings being concatenated are longer. There is a lot less work going on and a lot less memory allocated using concat - therefore less garbage collection.

My test case is indicative of the kinds of volumes a website concatenating articles might face, possibly smaller. I would point out that all of them are very fast and this should probably not be the first point of optimisation.

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal • Edited

It's interesting, I checked that concat is the lowest now. This is the reason I didn't use neither measurethat nor perflink, because the result is always different.

Anyway, I hardly ever use concat, nice reference.

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fruntend profile image
fruntend

Π‘ongratulations πŸ₯³! Your article hit the top posts for the week - dev.to/fruntend/top-10-posts-for-f...
Keep it up πŸ‘

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jcubic profile image
Jakub T. Jankiewicz

I suggest to watch this, you will change your mind about the benchmark results:

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal

It's interesting, so much magic behind V8. Regardless, this post just shows the perspective of using performance.now() for string literal and template literal. From this, we can also do other things to improve the accuracy.

Anyway, thanks for sharing. I got new ideas from the video.

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kodecapsule profile image
KUSEH SIMON WEWOLIAMO

Amazing , a good read .

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pravneetdev profile image
Pravi

This was a good read!

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ethanwillingham profile image
Ethan Willingham

Thank you for your work! You’ve helped me deepen my understanding of JavaScript!

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal

Happy to help!

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miguelowd profile image
Miguel Ortega Ward

Interesting post!

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natikos profile image
natikos

It’s odd, I am pretty sure I saw similar post about comparision string and template literals and the outcome was different (in favor of template literal) 🀨

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maafaishal profile image
Muhammad A Faishal

I'd love it if you could share it