How to Copy a Big Object or Array From Console to Clipboard

Publish Date: Sep 3 '20

91 15

Have you ever found yourself trying to Ctrl-C a console.log() output, only to get mad when it doesn't really work with long Objects and Arrays?

Here's what you should do instead:

1 - Right-click the console.log() output
2 - Click "Store as global variable"
3 - Run copy(temp1)
4 - Ctrl-V it wherever you want

Success! You may find that useful when debugging complex data structures or request payloads.

Let me know in the comments what else copy() might be useful for! 😄

Cover photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash

Why the cover photo is a monkey? Well, I make the same face when I'm debugging.

Hey, let's connect 👋

Follow me on Twitter and let me know you liked this article!

And if you really liked it, make sure to share it with your friends, that'll help me a lot 😄

Comments 15 total

Marcell CruzSep 3, 2020
Great tip, but I think the gifs are a little bit too fast
- Vitor PaladiniSep 3, 2020
  Thanks for feedback, Marcell. I thought that would be the case...
  
  I speed them up to decrease the overall frame count making each gif lighter, but I agree that it is looking a little intense 😬
  
  I'll fix them and update the post, thanks!
MadzaSep 3, 2020
A neat little trick that could come in handy at times 🔥👍
- Vitor PaladiniSep 3, 2020
  I'm stealing "neat little trick" for the name of this series, thanks 😄
  - MadzaSep 3, 2020
    I feel a lot of 🔥🔥🔥 coming in the future! 💯
AbdisalanSep 3, 2020
Very useful! Thanks 👍🏾
- Vitor PaladiniSep 3, 2020
  Glad I could help!
RamMohanSep 3, 2020
Definitely It will reduce my frustration while I'm debugging the code 👌
lionel-roweSep 3, 2020
Awesome tip, I never knew about copy before! In your example, you don't need to Store as global variable though — you could just copy(bigObject) directly.
- Vitor PaladiniSep 3, 2020
  You're right! I've created bigObject so I could simulate something like:
  
  fetch('http://example.com/movies.json') .then(response => response.json()) .then(data => console.log(data.bigObject));
  
  but I'm glad you caught that 😄
Claudio CorteseSep 4, 2020
Nice tip, never heard of copy before!
Jon Randy 🎖️Sep 4, 2020
Or just use Firefox, right click and 'Copy object'. Firefox's dev tools really are better than Chrome's IMO
bravemaster619Sep 4, 2020
Good tip! My hack was this:
JSON.stringify(temp1);
with Command C, V.

Very uncomfortable compared to copy method
amegaboscoSep 5, 2020
Amazing ! Can you please share the tool used to generate the gif capture ?
- Vitor PaladiniSep 5, 2020
  Of course! I've used Kap for capturing it and Gif Brewery for optimizing it and making it faster 😄

Add comment

Vitor Paladini @vtrpldn