Console.log! Alternatives: Elevate Your Debugging Practices

Do you always use console.log in your projects during development?

And even though we will keep using console.log, there are other alternatives that will make your development more fun and productive.

NOTE: If you are viewing log in a terminal especially if you are a backend developer then you can try JSON.stringify(your_data, null, 2) and use console.log() on the result. This will make sure that you don’t get {... value: [Object, Object]} in the log and the log will also be formatted making it easier to read.

console.dir()

For hierarchical listing of arrays and objects.

console.dir(["apples", "oranges", "bananas"]);

console.table()

For rows and columns listing of arrays (might not be suitable for objects).

console.table(["apples", "oranges", "bananas"]);

console.table({"a": 1, "b": 2, "c": 3});

console.group()

console.log('This is the top outer level');

console.group('Task 1');
console.log('Task activity 1');
console.log('Task activity 2');
console.groupEnd();

console.group('Task 2');
console.log('Task activity 3');
console.log('Task activity 4');
console.groupEnd();

console.log('Back to the top outer level');

console.time() & console.timeEnd()

try {
  console.time("record-1");
  await someAsyncTask();
} catch (error) {
   // handle error
} finally {
  console.timeEnd("record-1");
}

console.clear()

This will clear the console.

 
I hope this was helpful! 🚀