Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/moviedata.json'

Question

im working in node Js. When im trying to load a file: moviedata.json, with this lines:

var allMovies = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('moviedata.json', 'utf8'));

Shows:

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open './moviedata.json' at Error (native) at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:640:18) at Object.fs.readFileSync (fs.js:508:33) at Object. (/Users/dortiz/Documents/NodeJS/pruebas/zw/aws/MoviesLoadData.js:13:31) at Module._compile (module.js:570:32) at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10) at Module.load (module.js:487:32) at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12) at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3) at Module.runMain (module.js:604:10)

Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open 'moviedata.json' at Error (native) at Object.fs.openSync (fs.js:640:18) at Object.fs.readFileSync (fs.js:508:33) at Object. (/Users/dortiz/Documents/NodeJS/pruebas/zw/aws/MoviesLoadData.js:13:31) at Module._compile (module.js:570:32) at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10) at Module.load (module.js:487:32) at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12) at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3) at Module.runMain (module.js:604:10)

The file to read its in same folder that js.

But im don't understand what im doing wrong

Answer 1

fs.readFileSync('moviedata.json', 'utf8') will look for moviedata.json in the directory from where you ran your application, not in the directory where your MoviesLoadData.js file is located.

Suppose you ran node aws/MoviesLoadData.js from /Users/dortiz/Documents/NodeJS/pruebas/zw, fs.readFileSync('moviedata.json', 'utf8') would look for moviedata.json in /Users/dortiz/Documents/NodeJS/pruebas/zw, not in /Users/dortiz/Documents/NodeJS/pruebas/zw/aws

If you were to run your script with my given example, you'd need to prepend the path to the json file to correctly reference it.

fs.readFileSync(__dirname + '/moviedata.json', 'utf8')

I'm not sure how you run your code, so my example may not work in your codebase, but hopefully understanding where you went wrong will help debug your code.