Most efficient way to create a zero filled JavaScript array?

Question

What is the most efficient way to create an arbitrary length zero filled array in JavaScript?

Answer 1

My fastest function would be:

function newFilledArray(len, val) {
    var a = [];
    while(len--){
        a.push(val);
    }
    return a;
}

var st = (new Date()).getTime();
newFilledArray(1000000, 0)
console.log((new Date()).getTime() - st); // returned 63, 65, 62 milliseconds

Using the native push and shift to add items to the array is much faster (about 10 times) than declaring the array scope and referencing each item to set it's value.

fyi: I consistently get faster times with the first loop, which is counting down, when running this in firebug (firefox extension).

var a = [];
var len = 1000000;
var st = (new Date()).getTime();
while(len){
    a.push(0);
    len -= 1;
}
console.log((new Date()).getTime() - st); // returned 863, 894, 875 milliseconds
st = (new Date()).getTime();
len = 1000000;
a = [];
for(var i = 0; i < len; i++){
    a.push(0);
}
console.log((new Date()).getTime() - st); // returned 1155, 1179, 1163 milliseconds

I'm interested to know what T.J. Crowder makes of that ? :-)