Check whether console is present

Question

I am writing a plugin. For that I will log a few things, say warnings, necc things, etc. To log them I will use console, but there can be an error if some browser doesn't support console. To handle this error, I am thinking of using this code:

    if (typeof console == 'undefined') console = {}; if (typeof console.log == 'undefined') console.log = function() {}; if (typeof console.debug == 'undefined') console.debug = function() {}; if (typeof console.info == 'undefined') console.info = function() {}; if (typeof console.warn == 'undefined') console.warn = function() {}; if (typeof console.error == 'undefined') console.error = function() {}; 

Will this work right or is there a better option?

Answer 1

You're approaching it right. You could however shorten it a bit:

if(typeof console === "undefined") {     console = {         log: function() { },         debug: function() { },         ...     }; } 

This allows you to use console.log/console.debug etc without first checking if a console object is defined. I recommend to always include this snippet if you are logging since it is easy to forget to remove and it will break your site if no console is present.

Answer 2

This approach makes it easier to add/change/remove methods in the future and is more elegant and less redundant than most offered:

if (!"console" in window || typeof console == "undefined") {     var methods = ["log", "debug", "info", "warn", "error", "assert", "dir", "dirxml", "group", "groupEnd", "time", "timeEnd", "count", "trace", "profile", "profileEnd"];     var emptyFn = function () {};     window.console = {};     for (var i = 0; i < methods.length; ++i) {         window.console[methods[i]] = emptyFn;     } }