109

I'd like to use console.log() to log messages without appending a new line after each call to console.log(). Is this possible?

6
  • 10
    Was one of the answers correct? Commented May 16, 2012 at 8:05
  • 1
    I think @minitech's answer is correct: it is not possible. The other answers provide interesting, if somewhat orthogonal depth to our understanding of console.log(). Commented May 29, 2015 at 16:50
  • 1
    @DaveLand I believe it is perfectly possible by maintaining your own display buffer, and syncing that display buffer to the actual console by a combination of console.clear() and, e.g. console.log(). Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 10:08
  • 1
    @JohnWeisz: Thanks, but wiping the entire console for every "inline" update is not a solution for about 99% of applications. Still, have an updoot. Commented Jan 24, 2017 at 17:35
  • @DaveLand Yeah, it's more like a hack -- and now that I looked around, I realized it has been proposed before. Either way, it can be useful at times. Commented Jan 25, 2017 at 11:49

15 Answers 15

56

No, it's not possible. You'll have to keep a string and concatenate if you want it all in one line, or put your output elsewhere (say, another window).

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4 Comments

Actually, it is possible, but maybe not for the use everyone has in mind. In my case, I was just trying to print a question to get input from a command line terminal. See the answer to this question for the answer: stackoverflow.com/questions/26683734/…
@deltaray readline’s question is not console.log. The question is also about the browser console, not Node.js.
@minitech you can use spread operator to print in one line. see in example jsfiddle.net/imranqau5373/7m65at9L/2
@imrankhan: That’s not what the question was. The spread operator doesn’t add anything new here vs. passing multiple arguments/using apply.
50

In NodeJS you can use process.stdout.write and you can add '\n' if you want.

console.log(msg) is equivalent to process.stdout.write(msg + '\n').

3 Comments

NodeJS is not Chrome. This answer is irrelevant to the question 'can you console.log without a newline?'.
I landed here looking for this, so it was good to add the solution. Others think the same.
It's really not the same as you've said. console.log in NodeJS has a bunch of customization points.
31

Yes, it's possible (check out the demo below) -- by implementing your own virtual console on top of the native browser console, then syncing it to the real one.

This is much easier than it sounds:

  1. maintain a display buffer (e.g. an array of strings representing one line each)
  2. call console.clear() before writing to erase any previous contents
  3. call console.log() (or warn, error, etc) to fill the console with the contents from your display buffer

Actually, I've been doing this for some time now. A short, rudimentary implementation of the idea would be something along the following lines, but still capable of animating the console contents:

// =================================================
// Rudimentary implementation of a virtual console.
// =================================================

var virtualConsole = {
    lines: [],
    currentLine: 0,
    log: function (msg, appendToCurrentLine) {
        if (!appendToCurrentLine) virtualConsole.currentLine++;
      
        if (appendToCurrentLine && virtualConsole.lines[virtualConsole.currentLine]) {
            virtualConsole.lines[virtualConsole.currentLine] += msg;
        } else {
            virtualConsole.lines[virtualConsole.currentLine] = msg;
        }
        
        console.clear();
        
        virtualConsole.lines.forEach(function (line) {
            console.log(line);
        });
    },
    clear: function () {
        console.clear();
        virtualConsole.currentLine = 0;
    }
}

// =================================================
// Little demo to demonstrate how it looks.
// =================================================

// Write an initial console entry.
virtualConsole.log("Loading");

// Append to last line a few times.
var loadIndicatorInterval = setInterval(function () {
    virtualConsole.log(".", true); // <- Append.
}, 500);

// Write a new line.
setTimeout(function () {
    clearInterval(loadIndicatorInterval);
    virtualConsole.log("Finished."); // <- New line.
}, 8000);

It sure has its drawbacks when mixing with direct console interaction, and can definitely look ugly -- but it certainly has its valid uses, which you couldn't achieve without it.

1 Comment

This is the best answer here. You can even init with say max lines that keeps the log stack sufficiently short, so that you don't end up logging a huge set of data.
19

You can put as many things in arguments as you'd like:

console.log('hi','these','words','will','be','separated','by','spaces',window,document)

You'll get all that output on one line with the object references inline and you can then drop down their inspectors from there.

6 Comments

How does this answer the question?
I think this answer is useful.
This is useful. Even though it doesn't answer the question, it does provide a solution to what most people would be looking for when they find this question.
The reason why any would like to print without new line is that the following output is not known. Or just imagine a "loader bar" using e.g. dots.
Using multiple arguments breaks console.log styling as you can only style within first argument.
|
16

The short answer is no.

But

If your use-case involves attempting to log perpetually changing data while avoiding console-bloat, then one way to achieve this (in certain browsers) would be to use console.clear() before each output.

function writeSingleLine (msg) {

  console.clear();
  console.log(msg);

}

writeSingleLine('this');
setTimeout( function () { writeSingleLine('is'); }, 1000);
setTimeout( function () { writeSingleLine('a'); }, 2000);
setTimeout( function () { writeSingleLine('hack'); }, 3000);

Note that this would probably break any other logging functionality that was taking place within your application.

Disclaimer: I would class this as a hack.

2 Comments

Very much a hack, but clever. If you tracked what's already been logged to the console (say by maintaining some kind of virtual buffer), you could rebuild the buffer and append a new string every time you cleared.
Upvoted for actually answering the question! The answer is NO.
3

collect your output in an array and then use join function with a preferred separator

function echo(name, num){
    var ar= [];
    for(var i =0;i<num;i++){
        ar.push(name);
    }
    console.log(ar.join(', '));
}

echo("apple",3)

check also Array.prototype.join() for mode details

var elements = ['Fire', 'Wind', 'Rain'];

console.log(elements.join());
// expected output: Fire,Wind,Rain

console.log(elements.join(''));
// expected output: FireWindRain

console.log(elements.join('-'));
// expected output: Fire-Wind-Rain

Comments

3

If your only purpose to stop printing on many lines, One way is to group the values if you don't want them to fill your complete console

P.S.:- See you browser console for output

let arr = new Array(10).fill(0)


console.groupCollapsed('index')

arr.forEach((val,index) => {
  console.log(index)
})

console.groupEnd()

console.group

console.groupCollapsed

Comments

1

Something about @shennan idea:

function init(poolSize) {
      var pool = [];
      console._log = console.log;
      console.log = function log() {
        pool.push(arguments);
        while (pool.length > poolSize) pool.shift();
    
        draw();
      }
      console.toLast = function toLast() {
        while (pool.length > poolSize) pool.shift();
        var last = pool.pop() || [];
        for (var a = 0; a < arguments.length; a++) {
            last[last.length++] = arguments[a];
        }
        pool.push(last);
    
        draw();
      }
      function draw() {
        console.clear();
        for(var i = 0; i < pool.length; i++)
          console._log.apply(console, pool[i]);
      }
    }
    
    function restore() {
      console.log = console._log;
      delete console._log;
      delete console.toLast;
    }
    
    init(3);
    console.log(1);
    console.log(2);
    console.log(3);
    console.log(4);    // 1 will disappeared here
    console.toLast(5); // 5 will go to row with 4
    restore();

Comments

1

A simple solution using buffered output. Works with deno and should work with node.js. (built for porting pascal console programs to javascript)

const write = (function(){
    let buffer = '';
    return function (text='\n') {
        buffer += text;
        let chunks = buffer.split('\n');
        buffer = chunks.pop();
        for (let chunk of chunks)
            {console.log(chunk);}
    }
})();

function writeln(text) { write(text + '\n'); }

To flush the buffer, you should call write() at the end of program. If you mix this with console.log calls, you may get garbage output.

Comments

0

if you want for example console log array elements without a newline you can do like this

const arr = [1,2,3,4,5];

Array.prototype.log = (sep='') => {
    let res = '';
    for(let j=0; j<this.lengthl j++){
        res += this[j];
        res += sep;
    }
    console.log(res);
}

// console loging

arr.log(sep=' '); // result is: 1 2 3 4 5 

Comments

0

Useful for debugging or learning what long chained maps are actually doing.

let myConsole = (function(){
    let the_log_buffer=[[]], the_count=0, the_single_line=false;
    const THE_CONSOLE=console, LINE_DIVIDER='  ~  ', ONE_LINE='ONE_LINE',     
          PARAMETER_SEPARATOR= ', ', NEW_LINE = Symbol();
          
    const start = (line_type='NOT_ONE_LINE') => {
        the_log_buffer=[[]];
        the_count=0;
        the_single_line = line_type == ONE_LINE;   
        console = myConsole;  
    }
    const stop = () =>  {
        isNewline();
        console = THE_CONSOLE; 
    };                          
    const isNewline = a_param => {
        if (the_single_line && a_param==NEW_LINE) return;
        const buffer_parts = the_log_buffer.map(one_set=> one_set.join(PARAMETER_SEPARATOR))
        const buffer_line = buffer_parts.join(LINE_DIVIDER);    
        if (the_single_line) {                           
          THE_CONSOLE.clear();
        }
        THE_CONSOLE.log( buffer_line ); 
        the_log_buffer = [[]];
        the_count=0;
    }
    const anObject = an_object => {            
        if (an_object instanceof Error){
            const error_props = [...Object.getOwnPropertyNames(an_object)];
            error_props.map( error_key => an_object['_' + error_key] = an_object[error_key] );
        }
        the_log_buffer[the_count].push(JSON.stringify(an_object));
    }
    const aScalar = a_scalar => {
        if (typeof a_scalar === 'string' && !isNaN(a_scalar)) {
            the_log_buffer[the_count].push("'" + a_scalar + "'");
        } else {
            the_log_buffer[the_count].push(a_scalar);
        }
    }
    const notNewline = a_param => typeof a_param === 'object' ? anObject(a_param):aScalar(a_param);
    const checkNewline = a_param => a_param == NEW_LINE ? isNewline(a_param) : notNewline(a_param);
    const log = (...parameters_list) => {   
        the_log_buffer[the_count]=[];
        parameters_list.map( checkNewline );
        if (the_single_line){
            isNewline(undefined);
        }else{
            const last_log = parameters_list.pop();
            if (last_log !== NEW_LINE){
                the_count++;
            }
        }
    }
    return Object.assign({}, console, {start, stop, log, ONE_LINE, NEW_LINE});
})();

function showConcatLog(){
    myConsole.stop();
    myConsole.start();
    console.log('a');
    console.log('bb');  
    console.dir({i:'not', j:'affected', k:'but not in step'})
    console.log('ccc');
    console.log([1,2,3,4,5,'6'], {x:8, y:'9'});
    console.log("dddd", 1, '2', 3, myConsole.NEW_LINE);
    console.log("z", myConsole.NEW_LINE, 8, '7');
    console.log(new Error("error test"));
    myConsole.stop();
}

myConsole.start(myConsole.ONE_LINE);
var stop_callback = 5;
function myCallback(){
    console.log(stop_callback, 'Date.now()', myConsole.NEW_LINE, Date.now());
    stop_callback--;
    if (stop_callback>0){
        window.setTimeout(myCallback, 1000);
    }else{
        showConcatLog();
    }
}       
window.setTimeout(myCallback, 1000);

Comments

0

I know that this is an old question but i think i got something to add to here. The accepted answer is wonderful but i have another take how one could achieve appending to the console log or even replacing the log entries. I was dealing with the same issue and i think found a simple solution to this problem, it works for me atleast.

So what i've done is instead of logging directly to the console we use an object to store log entries. We log that object as soon as we can and we'll wait until all the necessary log entries have ran before we open that object inside the console. The way that works is if you log an object in the console, that object will get updated everytime you update that object in your script.

NB! Opening the object inside the console will prevent it from being updated, so only open it when you're ready to see the results.

So here's a quick example of what i'm using:

// Snippet console won't show you the updated objects, check the browser console for results

let logGroup = {};

console.log(logGroup);

const log = (message, group) => {
  if (!group) {
    console.log(message);
    return;
  }
  logGroup[group] = message;
};

log.append = (message, group) => {
  logGroup[group] = (logGroup[group] || '') + message;
};

log.push = (message, group) => {
  if (!Array.isArray(logGroup[group])) {
    logGroup[group] = [];
  }
  logGroup[group].push(message);
};

// Regular usage example
log('Regular message');

// Looped examples

// Regular group (replace)
for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  log(i, 'loopedRegularGroup');
}

//push
for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  log.push(i, 'loopedPushGroup');
}

// append
for (let i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  log.append(i + ', ', 'loopedAppendGroup');
}

Comments

-1

You can use a spread operator to display output in the single line. The new feature of javascript ES6. see below example

   for(let i = 1; i<=10; i++){
        let arrData = [];
        for(let j = 1; j<= 10; j++){
            arrData.push(j+"X"+i+"="+(j*i));
        }
        console.log(...arrData);
    }

That will print 1 to 10 table in single line.

Comments

-1

Yes bro, it is possible.

You can use the process.stdout.write() method instead of console.log() to log messages without appending a new line after each call.

Here is an example:

process.stdout.write("Hello ");
process.stdout.write("world!");

This will output "Hello world!" on the same line.

Comments

-4
// Source code for printing 2d array
window.onload = function () {
    var A = [[1, 2], [3, 4]];
    Print(A);
}

function Print(A) {
    var rows = A.length;
    var cols = A[0].length;
    var line = "";
    for (var r = 0; r < rows; r++) {
        line = "";
        for (var c = 0; c < cols; c++) {
            line += A[r][c] + " ";
        }
        console.log(line);
    }
}

1 Comment

A.forEach(row => console.log(row.join(' ')))

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