TypeScript, SyntaxError: Unexpected token {

Issue

I am trying to run my program using "node main.js", however, it keeps coming up with the error "SyntaxError: Unexpected token {"

D:\Visual Studio Code Projects\ts-hello>node main.js
D:\Visual Studio Code Projects\ts-hello\main.js:1
import { LikeComponent } from './like.component';
       ^

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)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:593:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:585:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:829:12)
    at startup (internal/bootstrap/node.js:283:19)
    at bootstrapNodeJSCore (internal/bootstrap/node.js:622:3)

I have tried changing the tsconfig.json file to "module": "commonjs", however, this did not work. I have even uninstalled and reinstalled node and started from scratch.

import{LikeComponent} from './like.component';

let component = new LikeComponent(10, true);
component.onClick();
console.log(`likesCount: ${component.likesCount}, isSelected: ${component.isSelected}`);

It should output the program correctly onto the command prompt.

Solution

Notice that your are running node main.js.

Your main.js currently has esm syntax (aka ES6 module syntax).

Assuming it is compiled from main.ts, you need to have module: commonjs in your `tsconfig.json

// tsconfig.json
{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "module": "commonjs",
    ... // other configurations
  }
}

With that, when you compile your code by running tsc, it will create main.js with commonjs module syntax.

Answered By - unional