title: $.each() vs for() loop - and performance
body: <p>These are mainly just some things I've been wondering, maybe someone can give me a little more insight on them, i'll share what i've noticed so far as well!</p>
  
  <p>First thing i've been wondering... is there any difference good or reason to use:</p>
  
  <p><code>$('element').each(function (i, el) { });</code> </p>
  
  <p>-- versus -- </p>
  
  <p><code>$.each($('element'), function (i, el) { });</code> </p>
  
  <p>Looking at the jQuery docs I can't see any rhyme or reason for one or the other (maybe you know an instance or additional things one can do over the other.</p>
  
  <p><strong>But more importantly I'm concerned with <em>speed</em> here</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>// As opposed to $.each() looping through a jQuery object
  // -- 8x faster 
  for (var i = 0, $('.whatever').length; i &lt; len; i++) {
      $('.whatever')[i] // do stuff
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If you check out this <strong><a href="http://jsfiddle.net/3ySng/1/" rel="noreferrer">jsFiddle DEMO here</a></strong>, you'll see the difference in speed is basically equivalent with either of them, but more importantly I feel like I should <em>always</em> be using <code>for()</code> loops...</p>
  
  <p>I was just unit testing (looping through each of 5 different scenario functions, 50,000 times), simply looping through a bunch of list items, and setting a <code>data-newAttr</code>, nothing special.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p><strong>QUESTION :: I guess my biggest question is, why not <em>always</em> use for loops while iterating through an object?? Is there even a point to using $.each()? Do you always use for() loops even when going through jQuery objects?</strong></p>
  
  <p><strong><a href="http://jsfiddle.net/3ySng/1/" rel="noreferrer">jsFiddle DEMO here</a></strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>Function type:                  Execution Time:
  _testArea.each() + $(this)               1947   &lt;-- using $(this) slows it down tremendously
  $.each()         + $(this)               1940
  _testArea.each() + el(plain JS)           458   &lt;-- using the Element speeds things up
  $.each()         + el(plain JS)           452
  for() loop       + plainJS[0] iteration   236   &lt;-- over 8x faster
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Just my 2cents. :)</p>