Why doesn't System.out.println work? (in Java)

Question

I want to print something in console so I can debug it. But for some reason, nothing prints in my Android application. How do I debug then?

public class HelloWebview extends Activity {
    WebView webview;    
    private static final String LOG_TAG = "WebViewDemo";
    private class HelloWebViewClient extends WebViewClient {
        @Override
        public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, String url) {
            view.loadUrl(url);
            return true;
        }
    }

    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        webview = (WebView) findViewById(R.id.webview);
        webview.setWebViewClient(new HelloWebViewClient());
        webview.getSettings().setJavaScriptEnabled(true);
        webview.setWebChromeClient(new MyWebChromeClient());
        webview.loadUrl("http://example.com/");    
        System.out.println("I am here");
    }

Answer 1

There is no console to send the messages to so the System.out.println messages get lost. In the same way this happens when you run a "traditional" Java application with javaw.

Instead, you can use the Android Log class:

Log.d("MyApp","I am here");

You can then view the log either in the Logcat view in Eclipse, or by running the following command:

adb logcat

It's good to get in to the habit of looking at logcat output as that is also where the Stack Traces of any uncaught Exceptions are displayed.

The first Entry to every logging call is the log tag which identifies the source of the log message. This is helpful as you can filter the output of the log to show just your messages. To make sure that you're consistent with your log tag it's probably best to define it once as a static final String somewhere.

Log.d(MyActivity.LOG_TAG,"Application started");

There are five one-letter methods in Log corresponding to the following levels:

• e() - Error
• w() - Warning
• i() - Information
• d() - Debug
• v() - Verbose

The documentation says the following about the levels:

Verbose should never be compiled into an application except during development. Debug logs are compiled in but stripped at runtime. Error, warning and info logs are always kept.

Answer 2

Use the Log class. Output visible with LogCat