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Rajasekhar Guptha
Rajasekhar Guptha

Posted on • Updated on

Beyond console.log()

We all have been using console.log(), but many more options are available out there.Let us see them now

The most useful type beyond log is console.table()

  • console.table()

    • Takes in JSON or an array and prints in table format
    • Very handy while visualising json objects and arrays
    • Syntax:

             console.table({
                    id: "1",
                    key: "value",
                        count: 2,
                });
      

      Alt Text

              console.table([
                  {
                      id: "1",
                      key: "value",
                      count: 2,
                      },
                   {
                       id: "2",
                       key: "value2",
                           count: 22,
                     },
                     {
                          id: "3",
                          key: "value3",
                              count: 5,
                             },
                   ]);
      

      Alt Text

The next useful method is error

  • console.error()

    • useful to differentiate errors from output logs while debugging

    Alt Text

    • red color

Next one, useful while calculating runnning times is time method

  • Time(time,timeLog,timeEnd)

    • To understand this, let us assume scenario of a stopwatch Alt Text
      • console.time()
        • equivalent to stopwatch start
      • console.timeLog()
        • like stopwatch lap/split
      • console.timeEnd()
        • stopwatch end
    • It works on basis of label. Label should be the same to get expected output

      console.time("ForLoop");  // "ForLoop" is label here
      for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
      console.timeLog('ForLoop'); 
        }
      console.timeEnd("ForLoop");
      

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Next one is warning

  • console.warn();
    Alt Text

    • yellow color
    • For warnings
  • console.assert()

    • console.assert(assert_statement,message)
    • evaluate assertion statement and if it is false displays the message

          if(3!=2){
      console.error({ msg1: "msg1", msg2: "msg2" });
      }
      -----------same as---------
      console.assert(3 === 2, { msg1: "msg1", msg2: "msg2" });
      

    Alt Text

    • console.assert(assert_statement,message,args)
    console.assert(false, "%d nd type for  %s ",2,"console.assert() method");
    

    Alt Text

Useful method for counting

  • console.count()
    works on basis of label

    • console.count(label)

          for (let i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
            console.count("label");
            console.count();
            console.count(i);
          }
      
          // output for
          console.count()  console.count("label")   console.count(i)
          default: 1              label: 1                0: 1
          default: 2              label: 2                1: 1
          default: 3              label: 3                2: 1
      
    • console.count()

      • if no label is mentioned it will consider default as label
      • The problem with default is it will continue the count like this Alt Text
    • console.countReset(label)

    • resets count of specified label to 0

I mentioned only few methods which I think are more helpful.To check all the available methods refer here

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Top comments (2)

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miguelmj profile image
MiguelMJ

This is very useful! Thank you 👌🏻

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rajasekharguptha profile image
Rajasekhar Guptha • Edited

Consider following on Twitter RajasekharGuptha

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