import vs require with slashes

Question

Note: I am on node 14.1

So I'm currently trying this line:

import "module-alias/register";

Which gives me the error

Error [ERR_MODULE_NOT_FOUND]: Cannot find module

the error pathing is:

node_modules/module-alias/register

but if I use commonjs

require("module-alias/register");

it works.

What's the difference between import and require that causes the slash to become an error?

Answer 1

1) Whenever you use to import,

import "module-alias/register";

at that time Compiler will check the relative path of your module register , in your case if you want to use import statement in NodeJs or javascript you have to specify your usable method of their module ( it is ES6 Syntax ) eg. you have profile method in your module register then you can write something like this,

import { profile } form "module-alias/register";

2) Whenever you use require,

require("module-alias/register");

it is same as import feature but there is one difference you can't specify any specific method of your module register,( IT is Common JS Syntax ) as the above example, you can't specify the profile method of your module register.

3)

1. The difference is like import is specified specific method of any module for further use in require we can't do that.
   2. import is asynchronous and require is synchronous.
   3. Import is Syntax of ES6 JS and Require is Syntax of Common JS

Answer 2

The difference between import and require is that import is ES6 syntax and that's the correct syntax for it you need to import something from Ex: express-validator.

import { check, validationResult } from 'express-validator';

Also import can be asynchronous.

Answer 3

register is a js file, and import requires explicit extensions thus import "module-alias/register"; will not work

but import "module-alias/register.js"; will.

Answer 4

import is used with ES6 and require is used with commonjs

1. for using import we should use, something like this

import myObject from './File.js';

and for exporting,

export default myObject;

2. for using require

var myObject = require('./File.js');

and for exporting,

module.exports = myObject;