print and debug

The print and debug functions default to printing to stdout, with debug using standard debug formatting.

print("hello");         // prints "hello" to stdout

print(1 + 2 + 3);       // prints "6" to stdout

let x = 42;

print(`hello${x}`);     // prints "hello42" to stdout

debug("world!");        // prints "world!" to stdout using debug formatting

Override print and debug with Callback Functions

When embedding Rhai into an application, it is usually necessary to trap print and debug output (for logging into a tracking log, for example) with the Engine::on_print and Engine::on_debug methods.

// Any function or closure that takes an '&str' argument can be used to override 'print'.
engine.on_print(|x| println!("hello: {x}"));

// Any function or closure that takes a '&str', an 'Option<&str>' and a 'Position' argument
// can be used to override 'debug'.
engine.on_debug(|x, src, pos| {
    let src = src.unwrap_or("unknown");
    println!("DEBUG of {src} at {pos:?}: {s}")
});

// Example: quick-'n-dirty logging
let logbook = Arc::new(RwLock::new(Vec::<String>::new()));

// Redirect print/debug output to 'log'
let log = logbook.clone();
engine.on_print(move |s| {
    let entry = format!("entry: {}", s);
    log.write().unwrap().push(entry);
});

let log = logbook.clone();
engine.on_debug(move |s, src, pos| {
    let src = src.unwrap_or("unknown");
    let entry = format!("DEBUG of {src} at {pos:?}: {s}");
    log.write().unwrap().push(entry);
});

// Evaluate script
engine.run(script)?;

// 'logbook' captures all the 'print' and 'debug' output
for entry in logbook.read().unwrap().iter() {
    println!("{entry}");
}

on_debug Callback Signature

The function signature passed to [Engine::on_debug] takes the following form.

Fn(text: &str, source: Option<&str>, pos: Position)

where:

The source of a script evaluation is any text string provided to an AST via AST::set_source.