Accesing exported module

Question

Having such a simple module (exports.js):

module.exports.val1 = "boz";
exports.val2 = "bar";

module.exports.fun1 = function Something() {
  console.log("bla bla");
};

exports.fun2 = function Something() {
  console.log("bla bla");
};

exports = "abc"; //1
module = "def"   //2

console.log(module);
console.log(exports);

and the file importing it(index.js):

var imp = require("./exports")
console.log(imp)

i get on the output:

def 
abc 
{val1: "boz", val2: "bar", fun1: ƒ Something(), fun2: ƒ Something()}

How can the imports be accessible/defined in the index file since it's overwritten on the #1 & #2 in the module file itself (what can be observed getting this 2 strings from module logs)?

user_1906362 · Answer

I believe it is the same as if you called a function with an object. The function gets a copy of the reference to the object and so it can manipulate the object, all reassignment does is make the local copy of the reference in the function point elsewhere.

function caller() {
   var obj = {}
   callMe(obj);
   obj.name; // "Hello"

}

function callMe(obj) {
   obj.name = "Hello";
   obj = {};
}

Note above that the obj the caller passes in is unaffected by the reassignment in "callMe". See "pass by value".

Accesing exported module

1 Answers