How to change string representation of objects in Nodejs debug console view

Question

How do I change the string representation of an object instance in nodejs debug console. Is there a method (like toString() in .NET) I can override?

Answer 1

My two cents: How about overriding the console.log function to do what you want to. Here is the POC which needs a _toString function in any object to change the way it appears in the log.

create a file logger.js with the following content:

const getUpdatedLogObj = function(x){


    if(x && typeof x == 'object'){
            if(typeof x._toString === 'function'){
                return x._toString()
            } else {
                for(let i in x){
                    x[i] = getUpdatedLogObj(x[i])
                }
            }
        }
        return x;
    }



    console._log = console.log
    console.log = function(x){console._log(getUpdatedLogObj({...x}))}

import it in index.js

require('./logger')

console.log({a: 1, b: 2, c: {d: 5, e: 6, _toString: function(){return 'fromToString'}}})

And you still get the navigaion: