Converting an object to a string

Question

How can I convert a JavaScript object into a string?

Example:

var o = {a:1, b:2}
console.log(o)
console.log(\'Item: \' + o)

Output:

Answer 1

None of the solutions here worked for me. JSON.stringify seems to be what a lot of people say, but it cuts out functions and seems pretty broken for some objects and arrays I tried when testing it.

I made my own solution which works in Chrome at least. Posting it here so anyone that looks this up on Google can find it.

//Make an object a string that evaluates to an equivalent object
//  Note that eval() seems tricky and sometimes you have to do
//  something like eval("a = " + yourString), then use the value
//  of a.
//
//  Also this leaves extra commas after everything, but JavaScript
//  ignores them.
function convertToText(obj) {
    //create an array that will later be joined into a string.
    var string = [];

    //is object
    //    Both arrays and objects seem to return "object"
    //    when typeof(obj) is applied to them. So instead
    //    I am checking to see if they have the property
    //    join, which normal objects don't have but
    //    arrays do.
    if (typeof(obj) == "object" && (obj.join == undefined)) {
        string.push("{");
        for (prop in obj) {
            string.push(prop, ": ", convertToText(obj[prop]), ",");
        };
        string.push("}");

    //is array
    } else if (typeof(obj) == "object" && !(obj.join == undefined)) {
        string.push("[")
        for(prop in obj) {
            string.push(convertToText(obj[prop]), ",");
        }
        string.push("]")

    //is function
    } else if (typeof(obj) == "function") {
        string.push(obj.toString())

    //all other values can be done with JSON.stringify
    } else {
        string.push(JSON.stringify(obj))
    }

    return string.join("")
}

EDIT: I know this code can be improved but just never got around to doing it. User andrey suggested an improvement here with the comment:

Here is a little bit changed code, which can handle 'null' and 'undefined', and also do not add excessive commas.

Use that at your own risk as I haven't verified it at all. Feel free to suggest any additional improvements as a comment.