How to inspect Javascript Objects

Question

How can I inspect an Object in an alert box? Normally alerting an Object just throws the nodename:

alert(document);

But I want to get the p

Answer 1

This is blatant rip-off of Christian's excellent answer. I've just made it a bit more readable:

/**
 * objectInspector digs through a Javascript object
 * to display all its properties
 *
 * @param object - a Javascript object to inspect
 * @param result - a string of properties with datatypes
 *
 * @return result - the concatenated description of all object properties
 */
function objectInspector(object, result) {
    if (typeof object != "object")
        return "Invalid object";
    if (typeof result == "undefined")
        result = '';

    if (result.length > 50)
        return "[RECURSION TOO DEEP. ABORTING.]";

    var rows = [];
    for (var property in object) {
        var datatype = typeof object[property];

        var tempDescription = result+'"'+property+'"';
        tempDescription += ' ('+datatype+') => ';
        if (datatype == "object")
            tempDescription += 'object: '+objectInspector(object[property],result+'  ');
        else
            tempDescription += object[property];

        rows.push(tempDescription);
    }//Close for

    return rows.join(result+"\n");
}//End objectInspector