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JavaScript

Posted by Phillip Rauschkolb
Phillip Rauschkolb
6,309 Points

node.js: FYI about the readFileSync encoding

EDIT: Would love to know how to get this post associated w/ the video, but I'm only given JavaScript as an option for the topic

In the node.js video 'Binding Values', we are instructed to set the encoding option for the readFileSync like this:

var fileContents = fs.readFileSync('./views/' + templateName + '.html', {endcoding: 'utf8'});

But that does not work.

After digging into the Node documentation I found this is the way to write it:

var fileContents = fs.readFileSync('./views/' + templateName + '.html', 'utf8');

1 Answer

joshuapetersen
joshuapetersen
2,340 Points
joshuapetersen
joshuapetersen
2,340 Points

They're both valid syntax under node.js v0.10.40 and any version thereafter. 

var fs = require('fs')

var file = fs.readFileSync('testfile.txt', {encoding: 'utf8'});
console.log(file);

var alternateFile = fs.readFileSync('testfile.txt', 'utf8');
console.log(alternateFile);

Here's the Typescript definition for the two versions of the function: 

/*
     * Synchronous readFile - Synchronously reads the entire contents of a file.
     *
     * @param fileName
     * @param encoding
     */
    export function readFileSync(filename: string, encoding: string): string;
    /*
     * Synchronous readFile - Synchronously reads the entire contents of a file.
     *
     * @param fileName
     * @param options An object with optional {encoding} and {flag} properties.  If {encoding} is specified, readFileSync returns a string; otherwise it returns a Buffer.
     */
    export function readFileSync(filename: string, options: { encoding: string; flag?: string; }): string;
Phillip Rauschkolb
Phillip Rauschkolb
6,309 Points

Thanks, yes I figured they were probably both valid. But the current workspaces setup does not work with the example given in the video. So this was just a heads up to anyone who runs into the same problem I did with getting it to work.