Sometimes, we want to read a file in Node.js.

In this article, we’ll look at how to read a file in Node.js.

How to read a file in Node.js?

To read a file in Node.js, we can use the fs.readFile method.

For instance, we write

const fs = require('fs')
const path = require('path')
const filePath = path.join(__dirname, 'start.html');

fs.readFile(filePath, {
  encoding: 'utf-8'
}, (err, data) => {
  if (!err) {
    console.log(data);
  } else {
    console.log(err);
  }
});

to call fs.readFile with the path of the file to read, an object with encoding to read the file with the given encoding, and a callback that has the read file data when the file is read.

We read the file at filePath as a text file encoded with 'utf-8'.

And then we get the file data from data.

If err is set, that means there’s an error when reading the file.

Conclusion

To read a file in Node.js, we can use the fs.readFile method.