cannot run javascript program in terminal Mac

Question

I have made a JavaScript hello world program in BBEdit, and saved it as app.js. But when I'm trying to run the file in Terminal, I keep getting the error (syntax error near unexpected token `'Hello world'').

The code:

console.log("Hello world")

The odd thing is, when I type node and then console.log("Hello world") into terminal, it works, just not when placing app.js directly into terminal.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

It seems that you are attempting to run the JavaScript as if it was a shell script (dragging app.js on to Terminal).

What you will have to do instead is run the JavaScript file with Node.

Open Terminal and then type:

node app.js

Make sure you have the correct path to find your JavaScript file and it should work as you expect.

Make sure your system knows where node is, of course.