Using the console

In many environments, you have access to a global console object that contains some basic methods for communicating with standard output devices. Most commonly, this will be the browser’s JavaScript console (see Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge for more information).

// At its simplest, you can 'log' a string
console.log("Hello, World!");

// You can also log any number of comma-separated values
console.log("Hello", "World!");

// You can also use string substitution
console.log("%s %s", "Hello", "World!");

// You can also log any variable that exist in the same scope
var arr = [1, 2, 3];
console.log(arr.length, this);

You can use different console methods to highlight your output in different ways. Other methods are also useful for more advanced debugging.

For more documentation, information on compatibility, and instructions on how to open your browser’s console, see the Console topic.

Note: if you need to support IE9, either remove console.log or wrap its calls as follows, because console is undefined until the Developer Tools are opened:

if (console) { //IE9 workaround
    console.log("test");
}