for vs. while – which is faster?

[Dormilich]

out of curiosity, does anyone know, if a for-loop or a while-loop executes faster?

ex.

var elements = document.getElementsByName("name");
 
for (var i = 0, l = elements.length; i < l; i++)
{
    // some code with elements[i]
}
 
var elem, i = 0;
while (elem = elements[i])
{
    // some code with elem
    i++;
}

[mrhoo]

while (elem = elements[i]) may not mean what you thought.

var elements= document.getElementsByName("name"), 
L= elements.length;
while(L){
    elem= elements[--L];
    //do something
}

[Dormilich]

@mrhoo
why should I not mean it like that? I've tested the code (works) and I can be sure the element really exists. furthermore, I don't have to access the array/HTMLCollection in the loop.

I could even go as far as (works too)

while (elem = elements[i++]) {}

[mrhoo]

It depends on what you are doing with the elements.

Nodelists are live- if you start with the last element, and count down in the while loop, you can remove some of them safely. If you increment by one and remove an element, you'll skip the next one. Counting down is safer with nodelists.