ee.Date.aside

  • aside() allows you to call a function on a ComputedObject (like an ImageCollection or Date) for debugging or visualization without interrupting the chain of operations.

  • It passes the ComputedObject as the first argument to the provided function, along with any additional arguments you specify.

  • aside() returns the original ComputedObject, making it seamless to integrate into existing workflows.

  • The function you provide to aside() can be anything, from print() for debugging to Map.addLayer() for visualization.

  • This method facilitates understanding intermediate steps and inspecting results within a sequence of Earth Engine operations.

Calls a function passing this object as the first argument, and returning itself. Convenient e.g. when debugging:

var c = ee.ImageCollection('foo').aside(print)

.filterDate('2001-01-01', '2002-01-01').aside(print, 'In 2001')

.filterBounds(geom).aside(print, 'In region')

.aside(Map.addLayer, {min: 0, max: 142}, 'Filtered')

.select('a', 'b');

Returns the same object, for chaining.

UsageReturns
Date.aside(func, var_args)ComputedObject
ArgumentTypeDetails
this: computedobjectComputedObjectThe ComputedObject instance.
funcFunctionThe function to call.
var_argsVarArgs<Object>Any extra arguments to pass to the function.

Examples

Code Editor (JavaScript)

// Print a message when constructing the ee.Date.
var eeDict = ee.Date(Date.now()).aside(print, "Today's date (UTC)");

Python setup

See the Python Environment page for information on the Python API and using geemap for interactive development.

import ee
import geemap.core as geemap

Colab (Python)

from datetime import datetime

def print_date(ee_date, message):
  """Prints a formatted date, along with a descriptive message."""
  display(message, ee_date.format("YYYY-mm-dd"))

# Print a message when constructing the ee.Date.
ee_date = ee.Date(datetime.now()).aside(print_date, "Today's date (UTC):")