My-Weekly-ToDo-List/.opencode/skills/react-best-practices/rules/js-length-check-first.md
mARTin d92a8c7210 feat: add task actions (notes/delete) and refine animation logic
- Added 'onDelete' and 'onNotes' support to TaskItem.
- Implemented hover actions (Delete and Notes icons) for tasks.
- Added Notes Modal for editing task markdown content.
- Simplified navigation animation to remove blank flash (single-phase slide-in).
- Fixed syntax error in updateTask function.
- Updated styles for modal and task actions.
2026-02-01 12:25:53 +01:00

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Markdown

---
title: Early Length Check for Array Comparisons
impact: MEDIUM-HIGH
impactDescription: avoids expensive operations when lengths differ
tags: javascript, arrays, performance, optimization, comparison
---
## Early Length Check for Array Comparisons
When comparing arrays with expensive operations (sorting, deep equality, serialization), check lengths first. If lengths differ, the arrays cannot be equal.
In real-world applications, this optimization is especially valuable when the comparison runs in hot paths (event handlers, render loops).
**Incorrect (always runs expensive comparison):**
```typescript
function hasChanges(current: string[], original: string[]) {
// Always sorts and joins, even when lengths differ
return current.sort().join() !== original.sort().join()
}
```
Two O(n log n) sorts run even when `current.length` is 5 and `original.length` is 100. There is also overhead of joining the arrays and comparing the strings.
**Correct (O(1) length check first):**
```typescript
function hasChanges(current: string[], original: string[]) {
// Early return if lengths differ
if (current.length !== original.length) {
return true
}
// Only sort when lengths match
const currentSorted = current.toSorted()
const originalSorted = original.toSorted()
for (let i = 0; i < currentSorted.length; i++) {
if (currentSorted[i] !== originalSorted[i]) {
return true
}
}
return false
}
```
This new approach is more efficient because:
- It avoids the overhead of sorting and joining the arrays when lengths differ
- It avoids consuming memory for the joined strings (especially important for large arrays)
- It avoids mutating the original arrays
- It returns early when a difference is found