Include External Files and Modules in Scripts

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Require a Local File

Require a Built-In Module
Require an npm Module

Important

A complete description of Node.js, modules, and the require() function is out of scope for this tutorial. To learn more, see the Node.js Documentation.

To use files and modules in your mongosh interactions, use the require() function.

In your mongosh scripts, you can require:

Local files
Built-in Node.js modules
External (npm) Node.js modules

Require a Local File

You can use JavaScript files in mongosh scripts without any additional setup or configuration.

Note

mongosh does not execute files imported with require(). Instead, mongosh adds everything from an imported file to the current execution scope.

Example

To include a file named test.js that is located in the current working directory, use one of the following commands:

require('./tests.js')

var tests = require('./tests.js')

Require a Built-In Module

You can require built-in Node.js modules (such as fs) in mongosh without any additional setup or configuration.

Example

The following example creates and executes a script that:

Connects to a local deployment running on the default port.
Populates the myDatabase.employees collection with sample data.
Uses the fs module to write a document from the myDatabase.employees collection to a file named employee.json.

Create a file named employee-to-text-file.js with the following contents:

const fs = require('fs');
db = connect('mongodb://localhost/myDatabase');
db.employees.insertMany( [
   { "name": "Alice", "department": "engineering" },
   { "name": "Bob", "department": "sales" },
   { "name": "Carol", "department": "finance" }
] )
const document = db.employees.findOne();
fs.writeFileSync('employee.json', JSON.stringify(document));

To load and execute the employee-to-text-file.js file, run the following command from mongosh:
```
load("employee-to-text-file.js")
```
To confirm that the data was written to the file, open the employee.json file.

Require an npm Module

You can require Node.js modules (such as those downloaded from npm). To use external modules, you must install the modules either:

Globally
In the node_modules directory in your current working directory.

There are two packaging standards for Node.js modules.

Packaging Standard	Works with require()
`CommonJS` (CJS)	Yes
`ECMAScript Module` (ES Module)	No

You cannot require() an ES module in mongosh. If you want to use functionality from an ES module, check to see if there is a CommonJS version that you can use instead. For more information, see:

Tip

You can require remote npm modules using this construction:

const localRequire = require('module').createRequire(__filename);

For an example, see index.js in the resumetoken snippet.

Example

Important

To run this example, you must install the date-fns module either globally or in the node_modules directory in your current working directory.

The following example creates and executes a script that:

Connects to a local deployment running on the default port.
Populates the myDatabase.cakeSales collection with sample data.
Uses the date-fns module to format dates.

Create a file named date-fns-formatting.js with the following contents:

const formatDistance = require('date-fns/formatDistance')
db = connect('mongodb://localhost/myDatabase');
db.cakeSales.insertMany( [
   { _id: 0, type: "chocolate", orderDate: new Date("2020-05-18T14:10:30Z"),
   state: "CA", price: 13, quantity: 120 },
   { _id: 1, type: "chocolate", orderDate: new Date("2021-03-20T11:30:05Z"),
   state: "WA", price: 14, quantity: 140 },
   { _id: 2, type: "vanilla", orderDate: new Date("2021-01-11T06:31:15Z"),
   state: "CA", price: 12, quantity: 145 },
   { _id: 3, type: "vanilla", orderDate: new Date("2020-02-08T13:13:23Z"),
   state: "WA", price: 13, quantity: 104 },
   { _id: 4, type: "strawberry", orderDate: new Date("2019-05-18T16:09:01Z"),
   state: "CA", price: 41, quantity: 162 },
   { _id: 5, type: "strawberry", orderDate: new Date("2019-01-08T06:12:03Z"),
   state: "WA", price: 43, quantity: 134 }
] )
const saleDate0 = db.cakeSales.findOne( { _id: 0 } ).orderDate
const saleDate1 = db.cakeSales.findOne( { _id: 1 } ).orderDate
const saleDateDistance0 = formatDistance(saleDate0, new Date(), { addSuffix: true })
const saleDateDistance1 = formatDistance(saleDate1, new Date(), { addSuffix: true })
print("{ _id: 0 } orderDate was " + saleDateDistance0)
print("{ _id: 1 } orderDate was " + saleDateDistance1)

To load and execute the date-fns-formatting.js file, run the following command from mongosh:
```
load("date-fns-formatting.js")
```
mongosh outputs something like the following:
```
{ _id: 0 } orderDate was over 1 year ago
{ _id: 1 } orderDate was 7 months ago
```
Your output may vary depending on the date that you run the example.

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Write Scripts

require() versus load()