Symbol.prototype[Symbol.toPrimitive]()

Baseline Widely available

This feature is well established and works across many devices and browser versions. It’s been available across browsers since September 2015.

The [Symbol.toPrimitive]() method of Symbol values returns this symbol value.

Syntax

js
symbolValue[Symbol.toPrimitive](hint)

Parameters

hint

A string value indicating the primitive value to return. The value is ignored.

Return value

The primitive value of the specified Symbol object.

Description

The [Symbol.toPrimitive]() method of Symbol returns the primitive value of a Symbol object as a Symbol data type. The hint argument is not used.

JavaScript calls the [Symbol.toPrimitive]() method to convert an object to a primitive value. You rarely need to invoke the [Symbol.toPrimitive]() method yourself; JavaScript automatically invokes it when encountering an object where a primitive value is expected.

Examples

Using [Symbol.toPrimitive]()

js
const sym = Symbol("example");
sym === sym[Symbol.toPrimitive](); // true

Specifications

Specification
ECMAScript Language Specification
# sec-symbol.prototype-%symbol.toprimitive%

Browser compatibility

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See also