Baseline Widely available
The toString()
method of Symbol
values returns a string representing this symbol value.
console.log(Symbol("desc").toString());
// Expected output: "Symbol(desc)"
console.log(Symbol.iterator.toString());
// Expected output: "Symbol(Symbol.iterator)
console.log(Symbol.for("foo").toString());
// Expected output: "Symbol(foo)"
// console.log(Symbol('foo') + 'bar');
// Expected output: Error: Can't convert symbol to string
Syntax Parameters
None.
Return valueA string representing the specified symbol value.
DescriptionThe Symbol
object overrides the toString
method of Object
; it does not inherit Object.prototype.toString()
. For Symbol
values, the toString
method returns a descriptive string in the form "Symbol(description)"
, where description
is the symbol's description.
The toString()
method requires its this
value to be a Symbol
primitive or wrapper object. It throws a TypeError
for other this
values without attempting to coerce them to symbol values.
Because Symbol
has a [Symbol.toPrimitive]()
method, that method always takes priority over toString()
when a Symbol
object is coerced to a string. However, because Symbol.prototype[Symbol.toPrimitive]()
returns a symbol primitive, and symbol primitives throw a TypeError
when implicitly converted to a string, the toString()
method is never implicitly called by the language. To stringify a symbol, you must explicitly call its toString()
method or use the String()
function.
Symbol("desc").toString(); // "Symbol(desc)"
// well-known symbols
Symbol.iterator.toString(); // "Symbol(Symbol.iterator)"
// global symbols
Symbol.for("foo").toString(); // "Symbol(foo)"
Implicitly calling toString()
The only way to make JavaScript implicitly call toString()
instead of [Symbol.toPrimitive]()
on a symbol wrapper object is by deleting the [Symbol.toPrimitive]()
method first.
Warning: You should not do this in practice. Never mutate built-in objects unless you know exactly what you're doing.
delete Symbol.prototype[Symbol.toPrimitive];
console.log(`${Object(Symbol("foo"))}`); // "Symbol(foo)"
Specifications Browser compatibility See also
RetroSearch is an open source project built by @garambo | Open a GitHub Issue
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HTML:
3.2
| Encoding:
UTF-8
| Version:
0.7.4