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® 2025 Language Specification
# sec-symbol.prototype-%symbol.toprimitive%

Browser compatibility

Report problems with this compatibility data on GitHub
desktopmobileserver
Chrome
Edge
Firefox
Opera
Safari
Chrome Android
Firefox for Android
Opera Android
Safari on iOS
Samsung Internet
WebView Android
WebView on iOS
Deno
Node.js
[Symbol.toPrimitive]

Legend

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Full support
Full support

See also