How to modify the output in chrome console when printing a javascript object

Question

I would like to know what's behind the scenes when I print an object in the console (like in the situation illustrated in the image). How can I define a special function inside the object for printing my own code instead of all the attribute of the object (the equivalent of toString in Objective-C)? For example if I evaluate a in the console I want to print only the string "hello" and not all {one: 1, two: 2, hello: "hello"} . Can I do it without using console.log() or similar functions?

Answer 1

Well, I am not sure if this is your question, but you could always override the toString() method of the object.

var a = {a:"something", hello:"hello", toString:function(){console.log(this.hello)}};

a.toString() //  prints hello

Hope that helps!