What is the equivalent of Java's System.out.println() in Javascript?

Jérôme Verstrynge picture Jérôme Verstrynge · Jan 4, 2012 · Viewed 121k times · Source

I am writing some tests for Javascript code and I need to dump some messages during the compile process when errors are encountered.

Is there any equivalent to Java's System.out.println() in Javascript?

P.S.: I also need to dump debug statements while implementing tests.

UPDATE

I am using a maven plugin on a file containing all merged tests:

        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
            <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>1.1</version>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                <phase>test</phase>
                <goals>
                    <goal>java</goal>
                </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
            <configuration>
                <mainClass>org.mozilla.javascript.tools.shell.Main</mainClass>
                <arguments>
                    <argument>-opt</argument>
                    <argument>-1</argument>
                    <argument>${basedir}/src/main/webapp/html/js/test/test.js</argument>
                </arguments>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

UPDATE II

I tried console.log("..."), but I get:

js: "src/main/webapp/html/js/concat/tests_all.js", line 147:
uncaught JavaScript runtime exception: ReferenceError: "console" is not defined

The code I am testing is a set of functions (like in a library). I am using QUnit.

Answer

Chris Wagner picture Chris Wagner · Jan 4, 2012

Essentially console.log("Put a message here.") if the browser has a supporting console.

Another typical debugging method is using alerts, alert("Put a message here.")

RE: Update II

This seems to make sense, you are trying to automate QUnit tests, from what I have read on QUnit this is an in-browser unit testing suite/library. QUnit expects to run in a browser and therefore expects the browser to recognize all of the JavaScript functions you are calling.

Based on your Maven configuration it appears you are using Rhino to execute your Javascript at the command line/terminal. This is not going to work for testing browser specifics, you would likely need to look into Selenium for this. If you do not care about testing your JavaScript in a browser but are only testing JavaScript at a command line level (for reason I would not be familiar with) it appears that Rhino recognizes a print() method for evaluating expressions and printing them out. Checkout this documentation.

These links might be of interest to you.

QUnit and Automated Testing

JavaScript Unit Tests with QUnit