Resetting console.log to it’s default functionality

On a live website, I’ve previously changed console.log to be:

var console = {};
console.log = function () {};

With this code always executing, is it possible to reinstate the console functionality after this code, and if so, how?

It’s needed, since the site is live. But I need to do further development, without making any updates to the live site. It’s hard without console logging/information.

Answer

If that code is not running on the top level, because console is on window, you can just reference window.console.log, eg:

(() => {
  var console = {};
  console.log = window.console.log;
  console.log('foo');
  // or, just reference window:
  window.console.log('bar');
})();

If the code is running on the top level and you’re using const or let (rather than ES5 var), you can do the same thing:

const console = {};
console.log = window.console.log;
console.log('foo');

Otherwise, you’ll have to save a reference to console.log before you reassign console with var:

var log = console.log;
var console = {};
console.log = log;
log('foo');

But it’s probably not a great idea to create/overwrite built-in global variables like that unless absolutely necessary – the IIFE in the first snippet is probably preferable.