list.item(0) vs list[0]

Question

document.getElementsByTagName('a').item(0)

and

document.getElementsByTagName('a')[0]

will return the same result...

Is the former faster than the latter?

Answer 1

Selfmade performance test: http://jsfiddle.net/438jh/2/

The difference seems to be negligible. The second method performs better in most case, but if you have a look on how often the loop is performed it does not really matter.

Chrome:

1. method: ~260ms
2. method: ~170ms