appendChild vs. DocumentFragment vs. innerHTML (v37)

Revision 37 of this benchmark created on

Description

Comparing 4 different ways to dynamically insert new elements into the DOM tree.

Preparation HTML

<div id="test1"></div>
<div id="test2"></div>
<div id="test3"></div>
<div id="test4"></div>
<script>
  // You can read this: <http://ejohn.org/blog/dom-documentfragments/>
  
  function text(node, txt) {
    node.appendChild(document.createTextNode(txt));
    return node;
  }
  
  function cleanUp(node) {
    node.innerHTML = "";
  }
  
  var content = [
    document.createElement("hr"),
    text(document.createElement("b"), "Links:"),
    document.createTextNode(" "),
    text(document.createElement("a"), "Link A"),
    document.createTextNode(" | "),
    text(document.createElement("a"), "Link B"),
    document.createTextNode(" | "),
    text(document.createElement("a"), "Link C")
  ];
</script>

Setup

var content = [
        document.createElement("hr"),
        text(document.createElement("b"), "Links:"),
        document.createTextNode(" "),
        text(document.createElement("a"), "Link A"),
        document.createTextNode(" | "),
        text(document.createElement("a"), "Link B"),
        document.createTextNode(" | "),
        text(document.createElement("a"), "Link C")
      ];

Test runner

Ready to run.

Testing in
TestOps/sec
appendChild
var div1 = document.getElementById("test1");

for (var i = 0, j = content.length; i < j; i++) {
  div1.appendChild(content[i]);
}

cleanUp(div1);
ready
DocumentFragment
var div2 = document.getElementById("test2"),
    fragment = document.createDocumentFragment();

for (var i = 0, j = content.length; i < j; i++) {
  fragment.appendChild(content[i]);
}

div2.appendChild(fragment);

cleanUp(div2);
ready
innerHTML
var div3 = document.getElementById("test3");

div3.innerHTML += "<hr><b>Links:</b> <a>Link A</a> | <a>Link B</a> | <a>Link C</a>";

cleanUp(div3);
ready
“Offline” node method
var div4 = document.getElementById("test4"),
    container = document.createElement("div");

for (var i = 0, j = content.length; i < j; i++) {
  container.appendChild(content[i]);
}

div4.appendChild(container);

cleanUp(div4);
ready

Revisions

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