Typescript: "SyntaxError: Unexpected token {" when running tsc-generate code in node.js

Created on 27 Jul 2018 · 10Comments · Source: microsoft/TypeScript

I dont' know if this is a node.js problem or TypeScript compiler. I just want to compile my code and run it under node.js without any special setup.

tsc -v: Version 2.9.2
node -v: v10.6.0

So i have this in my ts file:

import { assert } from 'chai';

which causes this error in node:


(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { import { assert } from 'chai';
                                                                     ^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
    at new Script (vm.js:74:7)
    at createScript (vm.js:246:10)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:298:10)

And here's my tsconfigfile. I'm hoping that something in my config file is causing this:

{
    "include" : [
        "src",
        "test",
        "unittest"
    ],
    "compileOnSave": true,
    "compilerOptions": {
        "module": "es2015",
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "esModuleInterop": true,
        "target": "es5",
        "noImplicitAny": true,
        "declaration": true,
        "sourceMap": true,
        "preserveConstEnums": true,
        "lib": [
            "es2015", "dom"
        ],
        "noUnusedLocals": true,
        "noImplicitReturns": true,
        "noImplicitThis": true,
        "alwaysStrict": true,
        "strictNullChecks": false,
        "noUnusedParameters": false,
        "pretty": true,
        "allowUnreachableCode": false,
        "experimentalDecorators": true,
        "suppressImplicitAnyIndexErrors": true,
        "outDir": "./build"
    }
}

Question

Source

jeffsaremi

Most helpful comment

If you want to run your code in Node.js, you need to tell typescript to transpile the ES module syntax to CommonJS. In your tsconfig:

"module": "commonjs",

AviVahl on 27 Jul 2018

👍9 🎉1

All 10 comments

If you want to run your code in Node.js, you need to tell typescript to transpile the ES module syntax to CommonJS. In your tsconfig:

"module": "commonjs",

AviVahl on 27 Jul 2018

👍9 🎉1

Thank you so much. That helped instantly.
Closing this.

jeffsaremi on 27 Jul 2018

👍2

Thanks, it helped

hrmeetsingh on 25 Feb 2019

Thank you!! I was really stuck on this, after working on Angular apps for the browser. Immediately fixed my problem.

king612 on 11 Apr 2019

👍2

was wandering if i can get some help with the same problem:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/56014054/typescript-tsc-unexpected-token-on-import
"module": "commonjs" doesn't help for some reason.

opahopa on 7 May 2019

"module": "commonjs", didn't help me.

This is the error I get:

import {Given, Then, When} from "cucumber";
       ^

SyntaxError: Unexpected token {
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:721:23)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:787:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:653:32)

And this is my tsconfig.json file:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "target": "es6",
    "module": "commonjs",
    "declaration": true,
    "sourceMap": true,
    "outDir": "built/",
    "removeComments": false,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "esModuleInterop": true
  },
  "exclude": [
    "built",
    "node_modules",
    "testapp",
    "website",
    "scripts",
    "exampleTypescript",
    "spec/**/*"
  ]
}

AbrahamNuno on 5 Jun 2019

👍8

Same issue.

itsthatguy on 22 Jun 2019

As @AbrahamNuno said, "module": "commonjs" doesn't help anymore. Is there any other way this can be fixed?

ardentia on 10 Aug 2019

👍4

here is mine just for reference.
changing back to commonjs fixed my issue

{
    "compilerOptions": {
        "noImplicitAny": false,
        "outDir": "dist",
        "baseUrl": "src",
        "target": "es6",
        "module": "commonjs",
        "moduleResolution": "node",
        "experimentalDecorators":true,
        "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
        "sourceMap": true,
        "declaration": false,
        "strictNullChecks": true,
        "noImplicitReturns": true,
        "noImplicitThis": true,
        "noUnusedLocals": true,
        "allowJs": true,
        "esModuleInterop": true,
        "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
        "strict": true,
        "forceConsistentCasingInFileNames": true,
        "typeRoots": ["./src/types", "./node_modules/@types"],
        "resolveJsonModule": true,
        "noEmit": true,
        "skipLibCheck": true,
        "isolatedModules": true,
    },
    "include": [
        "src/**/*"
    ]
}