SyntaxError: Invalid or unexpected token at createScript (vm.js:80:10)

Question

I've just arted to learn node, and when executing a very simple app from a powershell terminal:

node app.js

I am getting the following exception:

SyntaxError: Invalid or unexpected token
    at createScript (vm.js:80:10)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:139:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:607:28)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:654:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:556:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:499:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:491:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:684:10)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:187:16)
    at bootstrap_node.js:608:3
PS C:\Users\kisco\Source\Repos\library> node app.js
C:\Users\kisco\Source\Repos\library\app.js:1
(function (exports, require, module, __filename, __dirname) { ��v
                                                              ^

SyntaxError: Invalid or unexpected token
    at createScript (vm.js:80:10)
    at Object.runInThisContext (vm.js:139:10)
    at Module._compile (module.js:607:28)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:654:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:556:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:499:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:491:3)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:684:10)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:187:16)
    at bootstrap_node.js:608:3
PS C:\Users\kisco\Source\Repos\library>

Here's my source for app.js:

var express = require('express');

var app = express();

app.get('/', function(req, res){
    res.send('Hello from my libvrary app')
})

app.listen(3000, function(){
    console.log('listening on port 3000');
});

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

It looks like there is some encoding issue with the file that you're trying to run with Node. Sometimes, files created with some command line utility does some encoding issues with the file. So, I would suggest not to use them to create file. Just create file with Right-Click > New File > app.js and replace your old file with this app.js. And try running node app.js.

Answer 2

I had a similar issue. My problem was that I copy-pasted code from a website and the '"' were wrongly formatted by my editor. So, I replaced all those quotations with " or ', whichever is applicable.

That solved my issue.