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Fastest method of clearing all children from a DOM element (v95)

Revision 95 of this benchmark created by Drew Noakes on October 14, 2013

Description

There are several methods for removing all child elements from a DOM node. Which is the fastest?

Preparation HTML

<div id='box'></div>

Setup

var box = document.getElementById('box');
    box.innerHTML = 'sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>s f</b>s df<p>df gsdfg sf g<b>';
    
    function clearChildren(element)
    {
      if (element.children.length === 0)
        return;
    
      if (element.children[0].remove) {
        while (box.children.length)
          box.children[0].remove();
      } else {
        while (element.firstChild)
          element.removeChild(element.firstChild);
      }
    }

Test runner

Ready to run.

Testing in
Test		Ops/sec
removeChild(box.firstChild)	`while (box.firstChild) { box.removeChild(box.firstChild); }`	ready
innerHTML = ''	`box.innerHTML = '';`	ready
removeChild(box.lastChild)	`while (box.lastChild) { box.removeChild(box.lastChild); }`	ready
children[0].remove()	`while (box.children.length) { box.children[0].remove(); }`	ready
children[box.children.length - 1].remove()	`while (box.children.length) { box.children[box.children.length - 1].remove(); }`	ready
Function	`clearChildren(box);`	ready

Revisions

You can edit these tests or add more tests to this page by appending /edit to the URL.

Revision 1: published by Ali Mihandoost on December 6, 2011
Revision 2: published by Ali Mihandoost on December 10, 2011
Revision 5: published by XP1 on February 2, 2012
Revision 6: published on February 2, 2012
Revision 7: published on December 18, 2012
Revision 8: published on January 9, 2013
Revision 9: published on January 9, 2013
Revision 10: published on January 23, 2013
Revision 11: published on February 5, 2013
Revision 12: published on February 5, 2013
Revision 13: published on February 8, 2013
Revision 14: published by Philip O'Brien on February 18, 2013
Revision 15: published on February 19, 2013
Revision 16: published on February 27, 2013
Revision 17: published by Grant Kiely on March 13, 2013
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Revision 28: published by nickinuse on April 20, 2013
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Revision 42: published by Tomás Girardi on May 30, 2013
Revision 43: published by Filip Smets on May 30, 2013
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