SyntaxError

The SyntaxError object represents an error when trying to interpret syntactically invalid code.

Description

A SyntaxError is thrown when the JavaScript engine encounters tokens or token order that does not conform to the syntax of the language when parsing code.

Syntax

new SyntaxError([message[, fileName[, lineNumber]]])

Parameters

message

Optional. Human-readable description of the error

fileName

Optional. The name of the file containing the code that caused the exception

lineNumber

Optional. The line number of the code that caused the exception

Properties

SyntaxError.prototype

Allows the addition of properties to a SyntaxError object.

Methods

The global SyntaxError contains no methods of its own, however, it does inherit some methods through the prototype chain.

SyntaxError instances

Properties

Methods

Examples

Catching a SyntaxError

try {
  eval('hoo bar');
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e instanceof SyntaxError); // true
  console.log(e.message);                // "missing ; before statement"
  console.log(e.name);                   // "SyntaxError"
  console.log(e.fileName);               // "Scratchpad/1"
  console.log(e.lineNumber);             // 1
  console.log(e.columnNumber);           // 4
  console.log(e.stack);                  // "@Scratchpad/1:2:3\n"
}

Creating a SyntaxError

try {
  throw new SyntaxError('Hello', 'someFile.js', 10);
} catch (e) {
  console.log(e instanceof SyntaxError); // true
  console.log(e.message);                // "Hello"
  console.log(e.name);                   // "SyntaxError"
  console.log(e.fileName);               // "someFile.js"
  console.log(e.lineNumber);             // 10
  console.log(e.columnNumber);           // 0
  console.log(e.stack);                  // "@Scratchpad/2:11:9\n"
}

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
ECMAScript 3rd Edition (ECMA-262)	Standard	Initial definition.
ECMAScript 5.1 (ECMA-262) The definition of 'SyntaxError' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2015 (6th Edition, ECMA-262) The definition of 'SyntaxError' in that specification.	Standard
ECMAScript 2017 Draft (ECMA-262) The definition of 'SyntaxError' in that specification.	Draft

Browser compatibility

See also

• Error
• SyntaxError.prototype