Use console.log() like a pro
Marko Denic

Marko Denic @denicmarko

About: Software Engineer.

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Nov 16, 2019

Use console.log() like a pro

Publish Date: Nov 23 '20
218 17

Using console.log() for JavaScript debugging is the most common practice among developers. But, there is more...

The console object provides access to the browser’s debugging console. The specifics of how it works varies from browser to browser, but there is a de facto set of features that are typically provided.

The most common Console methods:

console.log() – For general output of logging information.
console.info() – Informative logging of information.
console.debug() – Outputs a message to the console with the log level debug.
console.warn() – Outputs a warning message.
console.error() – Outputs an error message.
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Custom CSS styles for a console.log()

The console.log output can be styled in DevTools using the CSS format specifier.
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String substitutions

When passing a string to one of the console object’s methods that accept a string (such as log()), you may use these substitution strings:

%sstring
%i or %dinteger
%o or %0object
%ffloat
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console.assert()

Log a message and stack trace to console if the first argument is false.
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console.clear()

Clear the console.
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console.count()

Log the number of times this line has been called with the given label.
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console.dir()

Displays an interactive list of the properties of the specified JavaScript object.
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console.group() and console.groupEnd()

Creates a new inline group, indenting all following output by another level. To move back out a level, call groupEnd().
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HTML elements in the console

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console.memory

The memory property can be used to check out the heap size status

Note: memory is a property and not a method.
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console.table()

Displays tabular data as a table.
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console.time() and console.timeEnd()

console.time() – Starts a timer with a name specified as an input parameter. Up to 10,000 simultaneous timers can run on a given page.
console.timeEnd() – Stops the specified timer and logs the elapsed time in seconds since it started.
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console.trace()

Outputs a stack trace.
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Comments 17 total

  • Aya Bouchiha
    Aya BouchihaNov 23, 2020

    Good job 🤗

  • Amitav Mishra
    Amitav MishraNov 23, 2020

    Awesome! Now console logging will be fun :)

    • Marko Denic
      Marko DenicNov 23, 2020

      With JavaScript fun never stops. Glad you liked the article.

  • Dan
    DanNov 23, 2020

    I've been wanting to know how to do those custom CSS styles! Thank you!

  • Ste Griffiths
    Ste GriffithsNov 23, 2020

    Great post!

    I'd add that you can console.log a few things, separated with commas, and they will come out with their "native" formatting instead of the dev tools trying to change them to strings. Sometimes this is better than using the string substitutions, and it's better than concatenating them with +

    Example: Example

  • Mathew Chan
    Mathew ChanNov 23, 2020

    Good post. Didn't know about console.assert. But as someone once told me, you must remove all your console logs before you commit :)

  • Pawan Jain
    Pawan Jain Nov 23, 2020

    I found console.table() quite interesting.
    Thanks for sharing cool stuff.

  • Sarah Shook 💎
    Sarah Shook 💎Nov 23, 2020

    Thank you for sharing this article, so many great uses of console.log() I haven't explored yet. I'm especially excited about console.clear()!!

    • Marko Denic
      Marko DenicNov 23, 2020

      Thanks, @joojaco . My personal favorite is the console.table(). I'm so glad you liked the article.

  • Blossom Babs
    Blossom BabsDec 16, 2020

    This is a great hack! I didn't know half of this before now. Thanks.

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