Print content of JavaScript object?
JavascriptObjectJavascript Problem Overview
Typically if we just use alert(object);
it will show as [object Object]
. How to print all the content parameters of an object in JavaScript?
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
This will give you very nice output with an indented JSON object using JSON.stringify
:
alert(JSON.stringify(YOUR_OBJECT_HERE, null, 4));
The second argument (replacer
) alters the contents of the string before returning it.
The third argument (space
) specifies how many spaces to use as white space for readability.
JSON.stringify
documentation here.
Solution 2 - Javascript
If you are using Firefox, alert(object.toSource())
should suffice for simple debugging purposes.
Solution 3 - Javascript
Aside from using a debugger, you can also access all elements of an object using a foreach
loop. The following printObject
function should alert()
your object showing all properties and respective values.
function printObject(o) {
var out = '';
for (var p in o) {
out += p + ': ' + o[p] + '\n';
}
alert(out);
}
// now test it:
var myObject = {'something': 1, 'other thing': 2};
printObject(myObject);
Using a DOM inspection tool is preferable because it allows you to dig under the properties that are objects themselves. Firefox has FireBug but all other major browsers (IE, Chrome, Safari) also have debugging tools built-in that you should check.
Solution 4 - Javascript
If you just want to have a string representation of an object, you could use the JSON.stringify
function, using a JSON library.
Solution 5 - Javascript
You could Node's util.inspect(object) to print out object's structure.
It is especially helpful when your object has circular dependencies e.g.
$ node
var obj = {
"name" : "John",
"surname" : "Doe"
}
obj.self_ref = obj;
util = require("util");
var obj_str = util.inspect(obj);
console.log(obj_str);
// prints { name: 'John', surname: 'Doe', self_ref: [Circular] }
It that case JSON.stringify throws exception: TypeError: Converting circular structure to JSON
Solution 6 - Javascript
Print content of object you can use
console.log(obj_str);
you can see the result in console like below.
Object {description: "test"}
For open console press F12 in chrome browser, you will found console tab in debug mode.
Solution 7 - Javascript
You should consider using FireBug for JavaScript debugging. It will let you interactively inspect all of your variables, and even step through functions.
Solution 8 - Javascript
Use dir(object). Or you can always download Firebug for Firefox (really helpful).
Solution 9 - Javascript
Javascript for all!
String.prototype.repeat = function(num) {
if (num < 0) {
return '';
} else {
return new Array(num + 1).join(this);
}
};
function is_defined(x) {
return typeof x !== 'undefined';
}
function is_object(x) {
return Object.prototype.toString.call(x) === "[object Object]";
}
function is_array(x) {
return Object.prototype.toString.call(x) === "[object Array]";
}
/**
* Main.
*/
function xlog(v, label) {
var tab = 0;
var rt = function() {
return ' '.repeat(tab);
};
// Log Fn
var lg = function(x) {
// Limit
if (tab > 10) return '[...]';
var r = '';
if (!is_defined(x)) {
r = '[VAR: UNDEFINED]';
} else if (x === '') {
r = '[VAR: EMPTY STRING]';
} else if (is_array(x)) {
r = '[\n';
tab++;
for (var k in x) {
r += rt() + k + ' : ' + lg(x[k]) + ',\n';
}
tab--;
r += rt() + ']';
} else if (is_object(x)) {
r = '{\n';
tab++;
for (var k in x) {
r += rt() + k + ' : ' + lg(x[k]) + ',\n';
}
tab--;
r += rt() + '}';
} else {
r = x;
}
return r;
};
// Space
document.write('\n\n');
// Log
document.write('< ' + (is_defined(label) ? (label + ' ') : '') + Object.prototype.toString.call(v) + ' >\n' + lg(v));
};
// Demo //
var o = {
'aaa' : 123,
'bbb' : 'zzzz',
'o' : {
'obj1' : 'val1',
'obj2' : 'val2',
'obj3' : [1, 3, 5, 6],
'obj4' : {
'a' : 'aaaa',
'b' : null
}
},
'a' : [ 'asd', 123, false, true ],
'func' : function() {
alert('test');
},
'fff' : false,
't' : true,
'nnn' : null
};
xlog(o, 'Object'); // With label
xlog(o); // Without label
xlog(['asd', 'bbb', 123, true], 'ARRAY Title!');
var no_definido;
xlog(no_definido, 'Undefined!');
xlog(true);
xlog('', 'Empty String');
Solution 10 - Javascript
You can also use Prototype's Object.inspect() method, which "Returns the debug-oriented string representation of the object".
Solution 11 - Javascript
You can give your objects their own toString methods in their prototypes.
Solution 12 - Javascript
You can use json.js from http://www.json.org/js.html to change json data to string data.
Solution 13 - Javascript
Simple function to alert contents of an object or an array .
Call this function with an array or string or an object it alerts the contents.
Function
function print_r(printthis, returnoutput) {
var output = '';
if($.isArray(printthis) || typeof(printthis) == 'object') {
for(var i in printthis) {
output += i + ' : ' + print_r(printthis[i], true) + '\n';
}
}else {
output += printthis;
}
if(returnoutput && returnoutput == true) {
return output;
}else {
alert(output);
}
}
Usage
var data = [1, 2, 3, 4];
print_r(data);
Solution 14 - Javascript
Internet Explorer 8 has developer tools which is similar to Firebug for Firefox. Opera has Opera DragonFly, and Google Chrome also has something called Developer Tools (Shift+Ctrl+J).
Here is more a more detailed answer to debug JavaScript in IE6-8: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/780059/using-the-ie8-developer-tools-to-debug-earlier-ie-versions/801547#801547
Solution 15 - Javascript
I faced similar problem, The reason for it was i make use of ajax to fetch data. In this case i had made two asynchronous ajax call. In one i just return string msg and show in alert. In second ajax call i fetch arraylist in json format and decode it in js. So my second request use to process first and i was getting alert of object.
So just check.
- alert should contain string.
- If u get arrayList or any other Object decode it.
All the best!