Bug in console.log ?

[LakshmiSwethaG]

I have this code. As you can see, the stringified version of the obejct, and the representation used by console.log are different. Is it a bug, or a limitation in the console.log?

function parse() {
var cont = [];
var obj = {};
cont.push(obj);
var arr = [];
obj['sw'] = arr;
arr.push(1);
return cont;
}

var obj = {};
var a = 'ee';
obj[a] = parse();
console.log(JSON.stringify(obj));
console.log(obj);

Output:

{"ee":[{"sw":[1]}]}
{ ee: [ { sw: [Object] } ] }  

[mscdex]

console.log() uses util.inspect(). That is the output you're seeing.

[vsemozhetbyt]

@mscdex Simplified code:

const obj1 = { prop: [{ prop: [1] }] };
const obj2 = { prop:  { prop: [1] }  };
const obj3 =          { prop: [1] };

console.log(JSON.stringify(obj1));
console.log(JSON.stringify(obj2));
console.log(JSON.stringify(obj3));

console.log(obj1);
console.log(obj2);
console.log(obj3);

{"prop":[{"prop":[1]}]}
{"prop":{"prop":[1]}}
{"prop":[1]}
{ prop: [ { prop: [Object] } ] }
{ prop: { prop: [ 1 ] } }
{ prop: [ 1 ] }

Why 1 becomes Object in the obj1?

[addaleax]

Why 1 becomes Object in the obj1?

It’s [1] that becomes [Object] to show an object that util.inspect didn’t inspect because it’s nested too deeply.

I agree, this is confusing and we could at least turn it into [Array] or even [Array with ${n} element(s)] instead.

[vsemozhetbyt]

It seems the depth inspect option matters.

const util = require('util');

const obj1 = { prop: [{ prop: [1] }] };
const obj2 = { prop:  { prop: [1] }  };
const obj3 =          { prop: [1] };

console.log(JSON.stringify(obj1));
console.log(JSON.stringify(obj2));
console.log(JSON.stringify(obj3));

console.log(util.inspect(obj1, { depth: null }));
console.log(util.inspect(obj2, { depth: null }));
console.log(util.inspect(obj3, { depth: null }));

{"prop":[{"prop":[1]}]}
{"prop":{"prop":[1]}}
{"prop":[1]}
{ prop: [ { prop: [ 1 ] } ] }
{ prop: { prop: [ 1 ] } }
{ prop: [ 1 ] }

[vsemozhetbyt]

Oh, and the square brackets are also a bit confusing here: [Object] seems to be an array with 1 Object.

[LakshmiSwethaG]

@mscdex Thanks for the quick response.
I got my doubt cleared.
I tried with util.inspect() options: depth:null and showhidden:true, and it worked.
console.log(util.inspect(obj, { showHidden: true, depth: null }));