Why do people use IIFE to export nodejs modules?

When watching or reading tutorial content about nodejs, I often see people exporting modules like the following

module.exports = (function(){
      return {
         nameToExpose: functionToExpose
         ...
    };
})();

module.exports = (function(){
      return {
         nameToExpose: functionToExpose
         ...
    };
})();

Is there some reason for this specific way? Why just don't export like usual?

3 Replies

dys 🐙•12mo ago

This is the CommonJS format for exporting which is how things were done before ECMAScript Modules became the standard around 2016. Some projects still use it for compatibility reasons.

Pi, a future fluent jp speakerOP•12mo ago

How it was done before?

dys 🐙•12mo ago

CommonJS is module.exports = { nameToExpose } & ESM is export const nameToExpose =.

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Why do people use IIFE to export nodejs modules?