SyntaxError: expected expression, got '<' - javascript

Question

So I looked around stackoverflow and i see that this may have been asked before but I cannot wrap my head around the error.

I get this error :

SyntaxError: expected expression, got '<' // first line

but my first line there is no error :

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

Somewhere your browser is expecting javascript but you're returning HTML. You should NEVER include DOCTYPE or any other HTML in an actual javascript file unless it's enclosed in a string like document.write('<span>abc</span>');. — h2ooooooo
– h2ooooooo, Commented Apr 16, 2016 at 12:20

pid · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-16 12:21:30Z

3

In a *.js file you don't put a <!doctype> header on the first line.

Just start with your Javascript code or, at most, put a "use strict"; there.

For example this is a valid JS file:

"use strict";

var x = 0;

But it is recommended to not poison the global space, so you really should do something more like this:

var LIB = (function () {
  "use strict";

  // your code goes here
}());

answered Apr 16, 2016 at 12:21

pid

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Comments

Lightness Races in Orbit · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-16 12:22:15Z

1

As it actually says, the DOCTYPE declaration is for HTML, not for JavaScript.

Simply do not write it.

answered Apr 16, 2016 at 12:22

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