Redux: Immutable data + bad performance

[elado]

At real-world's entities reducer implementation, https://github.com/rackt/redux/blob/master/examples%2Freal-world%2Freducers%2Findex.js#L10

This approach seems to be super slow with bigger data sets (say, 1000 entities).

lodash.merge has its own performance problem, as 1000 entities take 2.5s, but spread copy {...state, ...} is still slow (~120ms)

Here is a comparisons of merge/spread/partial copy/mutable: http://jsbin.com/miroto/3/edit?js,console

Obviously, Redux lives on immutable data, so it needs to stay immutable. How do you deal with this performance hit when dealing with many entities?

[babsonmatt]

@elado, have you tried ImmutableJS by any chance? I created an example method that fits your jsbin:

var users = _.times(1000).map(i => ({ type: 'user', id: i, name: `user ${i}` }));
var immutableUsers = Immutable.fromJS(users);

function immutableMerge() {
  return immutableUsers.reduce((state, u, key, iter) => {
     return state.mergeDeep({ [u.get('type')]: { [u.get('id')]: u } });
  }, Immutable.fromJS({ user: {} }))
}

{ lodashMerge: { state: { user: [Object] }, duration: 2281 },
  immutableMerge: { state: { user: [Object] }, duration: 62 } }

Edit: http://jsbin.com/cuvolasaja/edit?js,console

[pke]

@babsonmatt hmm this is the output I get:

[object Object] {
  copyRoot: [object Object] {
    duration: 16,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  copyRootAndList: [object Object] {
    duration: 300,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  immutableMerge: [object Object] {
    duration: 262,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  lodashMerge: [object Object] {
    duration: 7466,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  mutable: [object Object] {
    duration: 0,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  spreadCopy: [object Object] {
    duration: 355,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  }
}
[object Object] {
  copyRoot: [object Object] {
    duration: 5,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  copyRootAndList: [object Object] {
    duration: 544,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  immutableMerge: [object Object] {
    duration: 376,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  lodashMerge: [object Object] {
    duration: 9243,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  mutable: [object Object] {
    duration: 1,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  },
  spreadCopy: [object Object] {
    duration: 606,
    state: [object Object] { ... }
  }
}

so mutable is the fastest?

[gaearon]

I'm a bit confused as to what the test is doing.
It's copying _all_ the entities but only a few normally change when merging the response in.

Why does it copy every single entity?
And why are entities in an array rather than being indexed by IDs in an object?

[elado]

@babsonmatt Thanks! I'll explore this today

@pke yes, obviously mutable is the fastest but it won't work with how redux expects the data, which is immutable

@gaearon

• users is a mock of data that came from the server so it's an array
• The reduce functions (act like reducers) inject all incoming users into the initial state { user: {} }
• Eventually users are indexed by id { user: { '1': {id: 1, name: 'u1'}, '2': {id: 2, name: 'u2'}, ... } }
• On each incoming user, the entire list (state.user) is copied, otherwise, user property will stay the same.
• edit - untouched entities remain the same, they are just copied

Maybe it's ok to assume that the app doesn't care about state.user mutability? Then I can just inject new users into the same state.user, and maybe manage a list of IDs that would be immutable. Although I'm sure it will cause confusion.

edit 2 updated version of the jsbin: http://jsbin.com/mosiri/2/edit?js,console

[gaearon]

So the server response is like this:

[{
  type: 'user',
  id: 0,
  name: 'user 0'
}, {
  type: 'user',
  id: 1,
  name: 'user 1'
}]

and the state structure you want to get is like this:

{
  user: {
    0: {
      type: 'user',
      id: 0,
      name: 'user 0'
    },
    1: {
      type: 'user',
      id: 1,
      name: 'user 1'
    }
  }
}

Is this correct?

[elado]

@gaearon It could be an array like this or a single entity that I run an action to merge inside entitiesReducer state. The intention is to have normalized data, entities indexed by type and then by ID, exactly like real-world's eventual state.

[elado]

As for _.merge (what real-world uses) I filed an issue https://github.com/lodash/lodash/issues/1865 but it's not something that's gonna be fixed.
So probably real-world shouldn't use _.merge.

[gaearon]

_.merge was never supposed to be used in a loop. I think you're not using it in the correct way—you're supposed to first transform your input to be merge-able as is, and then call merge once rather than do it a thousand times.

[elado]

My data comes in a stream of entities that come in different times, each entity or a group of entities needs to be merged to the state.
The more data exists in the state, the longer it takes to merge it in.

To prevent UI re-render on each action, I debounce it. Explained here: https://github.com/rackt/react-redux/issues/263

I'll probably end up using Immutable.js as it seems the fastest (interesting to see how it's solved inside).

[gaearon]

This version is faster than the mutation code you wrote and is pure:

function somehow() {
  // These are supposed to be derived from state and action arguments
  let prevState = { user: {} };
  let fetchedEntities = users;

  // At first, shallowly copy the old state
  let newState = { ...prevState };
  let hasChanged = {};

  fetchedEntities.forEach(e => {
    let { type, id } = e;
    let newEntities = newState[type];

    // Unknown entity type: create an empty object
    if (!newEntities) {
      newEntities = newState[type] = {};
    }

    // If fetched entity is equal, avoid changing its reference
    if (_.isEqual(e, newEntities[id])) {
      return;
    }

    // Produce a new object (once!) if we're handling an entity of that type.
    // It's only created here so the function stays pure despite the internal mutation.
    if (!hasChanged[type]) {
      newEntities = newState[type] = { ...newEntities };
      hasChanged[type] = true;
    }

    // Reassign the entity (you can also merge with old version if you'd like)
    newEntities[id] = e;
  });

  return newState;
}

It also avoids changing the references for old dictionaries and individual items when we know they haven't changed.

[gaearon]

To clarify this.
If you create something inside your reducer it's fine to mutate it.

For example this is fine:

function reducer(state, action) {
  let arr = [state.something];
  arr.push(action.something);
  return arr;
}

I am mutating an array _I just created_ so this mutation is completely unobservable from outside and it doesn't make the function any less pure—I can call it many times and get the same results.

However this _is_ a bad mutation:

function reducer(state, action) {
  state.arr.push(action.something);
  return state;
}

In this case the mutation is observable and it will change the inputs, which is what we don't allow.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it really fall?
Our answer is that mutating the stuff you created inside reducers is fine—mutating inputs is not.
Always use local mutation for better performance, just make sure you understand the difference.

[gaearon]

Here's a slightly slower but simpler version relying on _.merge:

function lodashMerge2() {
  let prevState = { user: {} };
  let fetchedEntities = users;

  let stateToMerge = {};
  fetchedEntities.forEach(e => {
    let { type, id } = e;    
    stateToMerge[type] = stateToMerge[type] || {};
    stateToMerge[type][id] = e;
  });
  return _.merge({}, prevState, stateToMerge);
}

It's still 18 times faster than the ImmutableJS code in your example.
(Which can be optimized in a similar way as well!)

Scratch that, I don't think it's a good version because merge doesn't attempt to preserve the object identity if the merged objects are equal. This is why I'd still recommend hand-writing this code or writing your own merge() that attempts to preserve references when possible, as I did above.