Possible cases for Javascript error: "Expected identifier, string or number"

user_106095 0
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Some users are reporting occasional JS errors on my site. The error message says "Expected identifier, string or number" and the line number is 423725915, which is just an arbitrary number and changes for each report when this occurs. This mostly happens with IE7/ Mozilla 4.0 browsers.

I scanned my code a bunch of times and ran jslint but it didn't pick anything up - anyone know of the general type of JS problems that lead to this error message?

javascript
20 Answers

The cause of this type of error can often be a misplaced comma in an object or array definition:

var obj = {
   id: 23,
   name: "test",  <--
}

If it appears at a random line, maybe it's part of an object defintion you are creating dynamically.

user_2359930

Actually I got something like that on IE recently and it was related to JavaScript syntax "errors". I say error in quotes because it was fine everywhere but on IE. This was under IE6. The problem was related to JSON object creation and an extra comma, such as

{ one:1, two:2, three:3, }

IE6 really doesn't like that comma after 3. You might look for something like that, touchy little syntax formality issues.

Yeah, I thought the multi-million line number in my 25 line JavaScript was interesting too.

Good luck.

user_1352940

This is a definitive un-answer: eliminating a tempting-but-wrong answer to help others navigate toward correct answers.

It might seem like debugging would highlight the problem. However, the only browser the problem occurs in is IE, and in IE you can only debug code that was part of the original document. For dynamically added code, the debugger just shows the body element as the current instruction, and IE claims the error happened on a huge line number.

Here's a sample web page that will demonstrate this problem in IE:

<html>
<head>
<title>javascript debug test</title>
</head>
<body onload="attachScript();">
<script type="text/javascript">
function attachScript() {
   var s = document.createElement("script");
   s.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript");
   document.body.appendChild(s);
   s.text = "var a = document.getElementById('nonexistent'); alert(a.tagName);"
}
</script>
</body>

This yielded for me the following error:

Line: 54654408
Error: Object required
user_576110

This sounds to me like a script that was pulled in with src, and loaded just halfway, causing a syntax error sine the remainder is not loaded.

user_2350580

This can also happen in Typescript if you call a function in middle of nowhere inside a class. For example

class Dojo implements Sensei {
     console.log('Hi'); // ERROR Identifier expected.
     constructor(){}
}

Function calls, like console.log() must be inside functions. Not in the area where you should be declaring class fields.

user_101396160

Typescript for Windows issue

This works in IE, chrome, FF

export const OTP_CLOSE = { 'outcomeCode': 'OTP_CLOSE' };

This works in chrome, FF, Does not work in IE 11

export const OTP_CLOSE = { outcomeCode: 'OTP_CLOSE' };

I guess it somehow related to Windows reserved wordsenter image description here

user_7296100
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