Skip to main content
Version: 3.27.2

Symbol.prototype.toString()

The toString() method returns a string representing the specified symbol value.

Syntax​

toString()

Return value​

A string representing the specified symbol value.

Description​

The 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 Symbol.prototype.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.