Question

Why is the “this” an empty object in NodeJS?
Where does the “module.exports” belongs to?

I thought that "module.exports..." could be written as "this.module.exports..." but it won’t work.

Thank you

Answer 1

If you are in an actual module:

• module is a reference to the current module

• exports is a reference to the exported data. It gets cached away by NodeJS and delivered to other modules that require it

• this is an alternate reference to the exports object

• module.exports is an alternate reference to the exports object

• this.module is undefined

this is empty because as noted above it is a reference to the same object as exports, which is to be populated by the developer.

If this.module was a reference to module, then since this is a reference to exports, it would export the module itself along with the other exported items. I doubt this would be desired.

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If you are in the REPL, then this.module is defined.