'console' is undefined error for Internet Explorer

Question

I\'m using Firebug and have some statements like:

console.log(\"...\");

in my page. In IE8 (probably earlier versions too) I get script err

Answer 1

if (typeof console == "undefined") {
  this.console = {
    log: function() {},
    info: function() {},
    error: function() {},
    warn: function() {}
  };
}

Answer 2

Try

if (!window.console) console = ...

An undefined variable cannot be referred directly. However, all global variables are attributes of the same name of the global context (window in case of browsers), and accessing an undefined attribute is fine.

Or use if (typeof console === 'undefined') console = ... if you want to avoid the magic variable window, see @Tim Down's answer.

Answer 3

Another alternative is the typeof operator:

if (typeof console == "undefined") {
    this.console = {log: function() {}};
}

Yet another alternative is to use a logging library, such as my own log4javascript.

Answer 4

For a more robust solution, use this piece of code (taken from twitter's source code):

// Avoid `console` errors in browsers that lack a console.
(function() {
    var method;
    var noop = function () {};
    var methods = [
        'assert', 'clear', 'count', 'debug', 'dir', 'dirxml', 'error',
        'exception', 'group', 'groupCollapsed', 'groupEnd', 'info', 'log',
        'markTimeline', 'profile', 'profileEnd', 'table', 'time', 'timeEnd',
        'timeStamp', 'trace', 'warn'
    ];
    var length = methods.length;
    var console = (window.console = window.console || {});

    while (length--) {
        method = methods[length];

        // Only stub undefined methods.
        if (!console[method]) {
            console[method] = noop;
        }
    }
}());

Answer 5

Paste the following at the top of your JavaScript (before using the console):

/**
 * Protect window.console method calls, e.g. console is not defined on IE
 * unless dev tools are open, and IE doesn't define console.debug
 * 
 * Chrome 41.0.2272.118: debug,error,info,log,warn,dir,dirxml,table,trace,assert,count,markTimeline,profile,profileEnd,time,timeEnd,timeStamp,timeline,timelineEnd,group,groupCollapsed,groupEnd,clear
 * Firefox 37.0.1: log,info,warn,error,exception,debug,table,trace,dir,group,groupCollapsed,groupEnd,time,timeEnd,profile,profileEnd,assert,count
 * Internet Explorer 11: select,log,info,warn,error,debug,assert,time,timeEnd,timeStamp,group,groupCollapsed,groupEnd,trace,clear,dir,dirxml,count,countReset,cd
 * Safari 6.2.4: debug,error,log,info,warn,clear,dir,dirxml,table,trace,assert,count,profile,profileEnd,time,timeEnd,timeStamp,group,groupCollapsed,groupEnd
 * Opera 28.0.1750.48: debug,error,info,log,warn,dir,dirxml,table,trace,assert,count,markTimeline,profile,profileEnd,time,timeEnd,timeStamp,timeline,timelineEnd,group,groupCollapsed,groupEnd,clear
 */
(function() {
  // Union of Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari console methods
  var methods = ["assert", "cd", "clear", "count", "countReset",
    "debug", "dir", "dirxml", "error", "exception", "group", "groupCollapsed",
    "groupEnd", "info", "log", "markTimeline", "profile", "profileEnd",
    "select", "table", "time", "timeEnd", "timeStamp", "timeline",
    "timelineEnd", "trace", "warn"];
  var length = methods.length;
  var console = (window.console = window.console || {});
  var method;
  var noop = function() {};
  while (length--) {
    method = methods[length];
    // define undefined methods as noops to prevent errors
    if (!console[method])
      console[method] = noop;
  }
})();

The function closure wrapper is to scope the variables as to not define any variables. This guards against both undefined console and undefined console.debug (and other missing methods).

EDIT: I noticed that HTML5 Boilerplate uses similar code in its js/plugins.js file, if you're looking for a solution that will (probably) be kept up-to-date.

Answer 6

I am only using console.log in my code. So I include a very short 2 liner

var console = console || {};
console.log = console.log || function(){};