javascript object property lookup

Question

Due to object in javascript is associative map (HashMap in other programming languages) does next code

for (var prop in object) {
    if (prop === someConcreteProperty) {
        // some decision
        break;
    }
}

slower anyhow then dummy property lookup like

if (typeof object.someConcreteProperty != 'undefined') {
    // some decision
}

Edits:

I'm thinking about performance in code like:

for ( var prop in obj)
    if (obj[prop] === someAnonymousMethod) {
        // I need that property name for my need
        return obj.prop();
    }

will it be twice property lookup time like

obj.prop()

or more?

Thanks.

Programming 101: Second is faster because it doesn't have to loop through all properties. — mVChr, May 06 '11 at 21:07

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '11 at 21:29

This can be tested empirically:

<script language="javascript">

alert("Initialising test object...");
var obj = new Object();
for (var i=0; i<1000000; i++) obj["prop"+i] = i;


alert("Initialised. Doing Test.");

var d1 = (new Date()).getTime();

needle = obj["prop"+(i-1)]; // last object
for (var prop in obj) {
    if (obj === needle) {
        // some decision
        break;
    }
}

var ms1 = ((new Date()).getTime()) - d1;

alert("Method 1 took "+ms1+"ms.")

var d2 = (new Date()).getTime();

if (typeof obj["prop"+(i-1)] != 'undefined') {
    // some decision
}

var ms2 = (new Date()).getTime() - d2;
alert("Method 2 took "+ms2+"ms.")

</script>

Method 1 takes MUCH longer than Method 2. This is hardly surprising since all of the computing necessary to execute Method 2 is included in Method 1 plus MUCH more.

your tests [jsperfed](http://jsperf.com/property-lookup-vs-linear-scan). 2-3 runs for first case, vs 2+ million runs for second case. — Anurag, May 06 '11 at 21:46
I appreciate that you've taken the time to write a test case for him, but it's hard to say better then *mVChr* in the comments :) — gblazex, May 07 '11 at 00:10

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '11 at 17:47

The answer to this question becomes obvious when you understand how property lookup works in JavaScript. In the worst case, properties in JavaScript Objects are implemented as elements in a hash table.

Property lookup is, in this case, performed in constant time on average. It's good to note, though, that in very rare worst-case scenarios, hash table search time can be linear.

If you loop through a list of properties, you reduce the performance to linear time, roughly proportional to the number of properties in the object.

So, yes method 1 is always faster, and much much faster if the object has lots of properties.

Just as a side note: many modern JavaScript engines (i.e. Google's V8) may optimize your code for you to provide better performance. In fact, I believe Objects in V8 are implemented as real classes. In this case memory lookup is guaranteed to be constant time, unlike traditional hash table lookup.

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered May 06 '11 at 21:10

2

I guess for the first one you meant:

if ('prop' in obj) {
  // ...
}

Then you can talk about speed differences and different behavior.

Homework:

var obj = { prop: undefined }; // a bit philosophical...

answered May 06 '11 at 21:10

gblazex

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javascript object property lookup

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