Debugging Node.js with pp (pretty-print)
Rubyist often use the handy global pp method to do quick console debugging. It’s easy to do the same in Node.js
Console-based debugging will never substitute a real debugger, but, most of the time, is more than enough to find and fix problems.
As a long-time rubyist, I’m used to debugging my code using IRB or Pry. Inside IRB or Pry I use the Ruby kernel pp method to pretty-print objects. It’s quite handy it’s global. I use it all the time.
In Node, we have the console object. Its log, debug, error, and warn methods dump objects as human-friendly as possible. However, when dumping complex objects you don’t have too much control.
Node also provides a nifty util package with an inspect method that lets you stringify any object and fine-tune the output.
I like to combine both tools and make my own global pp method.
You can choose your preferred shared options, and later, override them as needed each time you call pp.
This is just a quick tip, but it’s worth mentioning. You get so much with less effort 😍.
