The difference between "require(x)" and "import x"

Question

I've just started working on a small node project that will interface with a MongoDB. However, I cannot seem to get the relevant node modules to import correctly, even though I have installed them correctly via npm.

For example, the following code throws an error, telling me that "express has no default export":

import express from "express";

However, this code works:

const express = require("express");

So my question is, what is the difference in how the import and variable/require methods function? I'd like to fix whatever is plaguing my imports on the project, as it seems likely to cause additional problems down the road.

Answer 1

This simple image will help to you understand the differences between require and import.

Apart from that,

You can't selectively load only the pieces you need with require but with import, you can selectively load only the pieces you need, which can save memory.

Loading is synchronous(step by step) for require on the other hand import can be asynchronous(without waiting for previous import) so it can perform a little better than require.

Answer 2

The major difference between require and import, is that require will automatically scan node_modules to find modules, but import, which comes from ES6, won't.

Most people use babel to compile import and export, which makes import act the same as require.

The future version of Node.js might support import itself (actually, the experimental version already does), and judging by Node.js' notes, import won't support node_modules, it base on ES6, and must specify the path of the module.

So I would suggest you not use import with babel, but this feature is not yet confirmed, it might support node_modules in the future, who would know?

---

For reference, below is an example of how babel can convert ES6's import syntax to CommonJS's require syntax.

Say the fileapp_es6.js contains this import:

import format from 'date-fns/format';

This is a directive to import the format function from the node package date-fns.

The related package.json file could contain something like this:

"scripts": {
    "start": "node app.js",
    "build-server-file": "babel app_es6.js --out-file app.js",
    "webpack": "webpack"
}

The related .babelrc file could be something like this:

{
    "presets": [
        [
            "env",
            {
                "targets":
                {
                    "node": "current"
                }
            }
        ]
    ]
}

This build-server-file script defined in the package.json file is a directive for babel to parse the app_es6.js file and output the file app.js.

After running the build-server-file script, if you open app.js and look for the date-fns import, you will see it has been converted into this:

var _format = require("date-fns/format");

var _format2 = _interopRequireDefault(_format);

Most of that file is gobbledygook to most humans, however computers understand it.

---

Also for reference, as an example of how a module can be created and imported into your project, if you install date-fns and then open node_modules/date-fns/get_year/index.js you can see it contains:

var parse = require('../parse/index.js')

function getYear (dirtyDate) {
  var date = parse(dirtyDate)
  var year = date.getFullYear()
  return year
}

module.exports = getYear

Using the babel process above, your app_es6.js file could then contain:

import getYear from 'date-fns/get_year';

// Which year is 2 July 2014?
var result = getYear(new Date(2014, 6, 2))
//=> 2014

And babel would convert the imports to:

var _get_year = require("date-fns/get_year");

var _get_year2 = _interopRequireDefault(_get_year);

And handle all references to the function accordingly.

Answer 3

Let me give an example for Including express module with require & import

-require

var express = require('express');

-import

import * as  express from 'express';

So after using any of the above statement we will have a variable called as 'express' with us. Now we can define 'app' variable as,

var app = express(); 

So we use 'require' with 'CommonJS' and 'import' with 'ES6'.

For more info on 'require' & 'import', read through below links.

require - Requiring modules in Node.js: Everything you need to know

import - An Update on ES6 Modules in Node.js

Answer 4

I will make it simple,

• Import and Export are ES6 features(Next gen JS).
• Require is old school method of importing code from other files

Major difference is in require, entire JS file is called or included. Even if you don't need some part of it.

var myObject = require('./otherFile.js'); //This JS file will be included fully.

Whereas in import you can extract only objects/functions/variables which are required.

import { getDate }from './utils.js'; 
//Here I am only pulling getDate method from the file instead of importing full file

Another major difference is you can use require anywhere in the program where as import should always be at the top of file

Edit: In Latest node versions you can use destructuring. It will look like this

const { getDate } = require('./date.js');

Answer 5

new ES6:

'import' should be used with 'export' key words to share variables/arrays/objects between js files:

export default myObject;

//....in another file

import myObject from './otherFile.js';

old school:

'require' should be used with 'module.exports'

 module.exports = myObject;

//....in another file

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

Answer 6

There's a big difference between this:

import express from "express";

and this:

import * as express from "express";

the correct translation from CommonJS to ES6 of

const express = require("express");

is the second import.

Basically, that's because in the first import you are looking for an export in module express named express. The second one you are importing the whole express module with name express.

Answer 7

These tools belong to different generations.

require exists only in CommonJS (the way Node.js created to import and export modules within an application), and import is ES6, ie, a new tool that both browser JavaScript and server JavaScript (Node.js ) can use.

In addition to this historical difference, there are differences in usage, where import is more flexible, modern and powerful than require.

It is important however to take into account that some browsers still do not support ES6, so it may be necessary to compile before using it.

require uses module.exports, which is the "old" (but still valid) syntax for exporting a module, which can be anything we want, an object, a string, etc.

import uses both, ie, you can use module.exports and export, and it allows you to export various pieces of code more or less like module.export did. One of the advantages of import is that it can only import parts of what was exported:

Examples:

File that exports:

// A.js file

// CommonJS syntax
module.exports = {
     foo: function(){ return 'bar';},
     baz: 123
}

// ES6 syntax
export function foo(){ return 'bar';}
export const baz = 123;

// or

function foo(){ return 'bar';}
const baz = 123;

export default {foo, baz};

File that imports:

// B.js file

// CommonJS syntax
const A = require('./A.js');
const foo = A.foo;
const baz = A.baz;

// ES6 syntax
import * as A from './A.js';
const foo = A.foo;
const baz = A.baz;

// or only
import {foo, baz} from './A.js';

When you use export default (ES6 syntax) it implies that you only export one thing per file. If it's an object, import can only import pieces. But if it's a function, for example, then you can just use import foo from './A.js'; without needing {} or * as foo.

Source: https://pt.stackoverflow.com/a/213938/317251

Answer 8

import coming from ES6 is an update to the old CommonJs module where require came from. Down the line, I will differential the syntax difference but for now, let's understand why they updated this.

require is the function that is executed on runtime, which means it behaves like the other JavaScript functions if you define it in the middle of the script the above part of the script won't recognise it or if you put it inside the if statement it will only execute if the if expression will be true, or if you put it inside another function it will only execute when the function gets executed, etc.

On the other hand, import executes on a static level and it has some rules that it should always be on a root level and should not be inside any conditional statements or functions. Due to JavaScript static analysis for imports, it will throw compile time errors if you do so.

These were the advantages due to that the team changed the way of importing packages to ES6.

Then Why node is still using the CommonJs module when ES6 is better?

There is a huge code base that uses the CommonJs module in the node that is very difficult to convert to ES6 due to its support for years. But there are many tools that allow us to write ES6 code in node but down the line, these tools transpile it to CommonJs.

Syntax Differences:

Import totally depends on the way things are exported from the package.

If the default way of export is used while exporting a function or variable. like module.export = functionName in CommondJs or export default functionName in ES6 then imports will be like this.

Import in CommonJs vs ES6

const functionName = require("package/exampleFile"); // CommonJs

import functionName from "package/expampleFile.js"; // ES6.
// here you can see that we need to add .js at the end of the file

If multiple functions are exported like module.exports = {functionName1, functionName2} in CommonJs or export functionName1 export functionName2 in ES6 then the import will be like this.

const {functionName1, functionName2} = require("package/exampleFile"); // CommonJs

import {functionName1, functionName2} from "package/expampleFile.js"; // ES6.