Common idiom to avoid IE throw: Error: 'console' is undefined

Question

I've installed firebug and I wrote all these log statements.

I've tested my app in IE and of course I've got "undefined" error.

What's the common idiom to avoid this.

I don't really feel like commenting all the console.log statements in my file nor to mock them.

Well I'm not sure what to do.

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 18 '09 at 00:46

10

i usually make a wrapper function like so:

function log(obj) {
    if (window.console && console.log) console.log(obj);
}

or you could do something like this at the beginning of your script file/element:

if (!window.console) { 
    window.console = {
        log: function(obj){ /* define own logging function here, or leave empty */ }
    };
}

answered Jul 18 '09 at 00:46

Darko

And comment/uncomment that single line when debugging? – OscarRyz Jul 18 '09 at 00:48
Ahh no, it will return false on firefox+firebug :) – OscarRyz Jul 18 '09 at 00:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 02 '13 at 03:45

Paul Irish has a better wrapper for console.log().

This allows multiple arguments, and provides a history (for debugging) in case no console is there or (eg Firebug Lite) the console is created later.

2 Answers2