Most efficient way to concatenate strings in JavaScript?

Question

In JavaScript, I have a loop that has many iterations, and in each iteration, I am creating a huge string with many += operators. Is there a more efficient way to create a string? I was thinking about creating a dynamic array where I keep adding strings to it and then do a join. Can anyone explain and give an example of the fastest way to do this?

Answer 1

Seems based on benchmarks at JSPerf that using += is the fastest method, though not necessarily in every browser.

For building strings in the DOM, it seems to be better to concatenate the string first and then add to the DOM, rather then iteratively add it to the dom. You should benchmark your own case though.

(Thanks @zAlbee for correction)

Answer 2

I have no comment on the concatenation itself, but I'd like to point out that @Jakub Hampl's suggestion:

For building strings in the DOM, in some cases it might be better to iteratively add to the DOM, rather then add a huge string at once.

is wrong, because it's based on a flawed test. That test never actually appends into the DOM.

This fixed test shows that creating the string all at once before rendering it is much, MUCH faster. It's not even a contest.

(Sorry this is a separate answer, but I don't have enough rep to comment on answers yet.)

Answer 3

Three years past since this question was answered but I will provide my answer anyway :)

Actually, accepted answer is not fully correct. Jakub's test uses hardcoded string which allows JS engine to optimize code execution (Google's V8 is really good in this stuff!). But as soon as you use completely random strings (here is JSPerf) then string concatenation will be on a second place.

Answer 4

You can also do string concat with template literals. I updated the other posters' JSPerf tests to include it.

for (var res = '', i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
  res = `${res}${data[i]}`;
}

Answer 5

I did a quick test in both node and chrome and found in both cases += is faster:

var profile = func => { 
    var start = new Date();
    for (var i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) func('test');
    console.log(new Date() - start);
}
profile(x => "testtesttesttesttest");
profile(x => `${x}${x}${x}${x}${x}`);
profile(x => x + x + x + x + x );
profile(x => { var s = x; s += x; s += x; s += x; s += x; return s; });
profile(x => [x, x, x, x, x].join(""));
profile(x => { var a = [x]; a.push(x); a.push(x); a.push(x); a.push(x); return a.join(""); });

results in node: 7.0.10

• assignment: 8
• template literals: 524
• plus: 382
• plus equals: 379
• array join: 1476
• array push join: 1651

results from chrome 86.0.4240.198:

• assignment: 6
• template literals: 531
• plus: 406
• plus equals: 403
• array join: 1552
• array push join: 1813

Answer 6

I wonder why String.prototype.concat is not getting any love. In my tests (assuming you already have an array of strings), it outperforms all other methods.

perf.link test

Test code:

const numStrings = 100;
const strings = [...new Array(numStrings)].map(() => Math.random().toString(36).substring(6));

const concatReduce = (strs) => strs.reduce((a, b) => a + b);

const concatLoop = (strs) => {
  let result = ''
  for (let i = 0; i < strings.length; i++) {
    result += strings[i];
  }
  return result;
}

// Case 1: 52,570 ops/s
concatLoop(strings);

// Case 2: 96,450 ops/s
concatReduce(strings)

// Case 3: 138,020 ops/s
strings.join('')

// Case 4: 169,520 ops/s
''.concat(...strings)

Answer 7

I can't comment on other's answers (not enough rep.), so I will say MadBreaks' answer of using template literals is good, but care should be taken if building a site that needs to be compatible with IE (Internet Explorer), because template literals aren't compatible with IE. So, in that case you can just use assignment operators (+, +=).