What is console.log?

Question

What is the use of console.log?

Please explain how to use it in JavaScript, with a code example.

Answer 1

console.log logs debug information to the console on some browsers (Firefox with Firebug installed, Chrome, IE8, anything with Firebug Lite installed). On Firefox it is a very powerful tool, allowing you to inspect objects or examine the layout or other properties of HTML elements. It isn't related to jQuery, but there are two things that are commonly done when using it with jQuery:

• install the FireQuery extension for Firebug. This, amongst other advantages, makes the logging of jQuery objects look nicer.

• create a wrapper that is more in line with jQuery's chaining code conventions.

This means usually something like this:

$.fn.log = function() {
    if (window.console && console.log) {
        console.log(this);
    }
    return this;
}

which you can then invoke like

$('foo.bar').find(':baz').log().hide();

to easily check inside jQuery chains.