getElementsByTagname("a")[0] vs. querySelector("a")

Benchmark created by Nicholas C. Zakas on

Description

Tests how quickly you can retrieve a single element on the page using getElementsByTagName("a")[0] vs. querySelector("a").

Preparation HTML

<ul>
<li><a href="#">Item</a></li><li><a href="#">Item</a></li><li><a href="#">Item</a></li><li><a href="#">Item</a></li><li><a href="#">Item</a></li></ul>
<script>
  var result;
</script>

Test runner

Ready to run.

Testing in
TestOps/sec
Using getElementsByTagName()
result = document.getElementsByTagName("a")[0];
ready
Using querySelector()
result = document.querySelector("a");
ready

Revisions

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