NodeJs require('./file.js') issues

node.js require
Patrick Lorio picture Patrick Lorio · Jul 30, 2012 · Viewed 80.4k times · Source

I am having issues including files to execute in my NodeJs project.

I have two files in the same directory:

a.js

var test = "Hello World";

and

b.js

require('./a.js');
console.log(test);

I execute b.js with node b.js and get the error ReferenceError: test is not defined.

I have looked through the docs http://nodejs.org/api/modules.html#modules_file_modules

What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

Answer

rdrey picture rdrey · Jul 30, 2012

Change a.js to export the variable:

exports.test = "Hello World";

and assign the return value of require('./a.js') to a variable:

var a = require('./a.js');
console.log(a.test);

Another pattern you will often see and probably use is to assign something (an object, function) to the module.exports object in a.js, like so:

module.exports = { big: "string" };

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