reading-command-line-arguments.md

Reading command line arguments

Today I started properly learning Node.js. I do not believe, among many, that JavaScript is the best back-end language out there simply of its imperfections. Nevertheless, based on research, I found out that Node.js facilitates for quick prototyping, and is perfect for building MVPs. It can support large-scale projects as well but for those I am personally inclined of using Scala or other statically typed languages which I am also very keen on exploring.

Anyway, today I started small by learning how to read command line arguents. It's done by accessing global object's process property process.argv, as in the example below:

// print process.argv
process.argv.forEach((val, index, array) => {
  console.log(`${index}: ${val}`);
});

After executing the command node program.js file.txt two foo=bar we get the following output:

0: /usr/local/bin/node
1: /Users/macbook/Documents/Projects/Sandbox/node-school/program.js
2: file.txt
3: two
4: foo=bar

The first element is the path to node, second element is the path to the program being run, and all the rest of the arguments are whatever you provide. Can't get any easier than this :)

Resources

• Official Node.js documentation, process object section