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The Ultimate Guide to Web Console πŸ”₯

To debug a code you will use the console

The console object provides access to the browser's debugging console.

Once you master the console, it will help you to be more organized, debug much faster & know everything that's going on in your app. So I will try to summarize all you need to know in short points with examples πŸ”₯

console.log(message)

Outputs a message to the console

const A = 'World';
console.log(`Hello ${A}`);
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log
To add styles

console.log('%c Test One', 'color: #bada55; font-size: 20px');
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styles

console.log('%c JavaScript', 'font-weight: bold; font-size: 50px; color: blue; text-shadow: 6px 6px #E485F8, 3px 3px #E485F8;');
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pro styles

  • %o / %O - objects
  • %d / %i - integers
  • %s - strings
  • %f - floating-point numbers

console.info(message)

Outputs a message to the console
In case of Firefox it will add an i icon

console.log('This is log');
console.info('This is info');
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log vs info

console.warn(message)

Outputs a warning message to the console

console.warn('This is Warning message');
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warn

console.error(message)

Outputs an error message to the console

console.error('This is Error message');
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error

console.trace()

Outputs a stack trace to the console

function a() {
  b();
}
function b() {
  console.trace();
}
function trace() {
  a();
}
trace();
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trace

console.group() & groupEnd()

Outputs in grouped

console.group("Alphabet")
  console.log("A");
  console.log("B");
  console.log("C");
  console.group("Numbers");
    console.log("One");
    console.log("Two");
  console.groupEnd("Numbers");
console.groupEnd("Alphabet");
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grouped

console.assert(condition, failure message)

const A = 20;
console.assert(A === 20, 'This is true');
console.assert(A === 21, 'This is false');
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If true it will not print any message, on fail:
assert fail

console.count()

Logs the number of times this particular count() has been called

function count(label) {
  console.count(label);
}
count("One");
count("Two");
count("One");
count("One");
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count

console.countReset()

Resets the count

console.count();
console.count();
console.countReset();
console.count();
console.count("time");
console.count("time");
console.countReset("time");
console.count("time");
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countreset

console.dir()

Outputs objects in a formatted way

const obj = {
  name: "user name",
  email: "test@test.com",
  tags: ['dev', 'react', 'js']
};
console.dir(obj);
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dir

console.dirxml()

Outputs the elements if possible, or the JavaScript representation

<div class="tryRender">
  <span>
    <button>Click Me</button>
  </span>
</div>

<script>
  console.dirxml(document.querySelector('.tryRender'));
</script>
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console master

console.time(label) & timeEnd(label)

We can start a timer with console.time and then end it with console.endTime. By using this we can find the time taken to execute a function

function a () {
  for(let i = 0 ;i < 10; i ++) {
    // operation;
  }
}

function b () {
  for(let i = 0 ;i < 10000; i ++) {
    // operation;
  }
}

console.time();
a();
console.timeEnd();

console.time();
b();
console.timeEnd();
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timer

console.table(obj)

Outputs objects in table format

const obj = {
  name: "user name",
  email: "test@test.com",
  tags: ['dev', 'react', 'js']
};
console.table(obj);
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table

console.profile(message) & profileEnd(message)

Outputs message, doesn’t display anything unless used in the inspector, or inspector is open

console.profile('This is profile');
console.profileEnd('This is profile');
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profile

console.clear()

Remove all the console message and prints Console was cleared
clear


Being Javascript developer for sure you have used the console. You may not need all of these, but when your project becomes bigger and more complex, some of the options will boost your debugging process πŸ’₯

Top comments (2)

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tracygjg profile image
Tracy Gilmore

Good introduction. For a definitive description of the console API, I would refer readers to the Mozilla Developer Network page at developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/W...

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danwalsh profile image
Dan Walsh

Great, concise collection of examples! Will definitely be adding a few of these to my tool belt. Cheers! πŸ»πŸ™‡β€β™‚οΈ