Can you export multiple classes from a single Node.js module?

Question

Currently, I have four child classes, each in their own file. I'm requiring them to be all in the same file. Can I contain all four of those classes in a single module?

Currently, I'm importing them like this:

var Jack = require('./Jack.js');
var JackInstance = new Jack();
var Jones = require('./Jones.js');
var JonesInstance = new Jones();

I'd like to import them like this

var People = require('./People.js');
var JackInstance = new People.Jack();

Or even

var Jack = require('./People.js').Jack;
var JackInstance = new Jack();

My classes are defined like so

class Jack{
    // Member variables, functions, etc.
}

module.exports = Jack;

Inyoka · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-23 11:24:22Z

118

You can export multiple classes like this:

e.g. People.js

class Jack{
   //Member variables, functions, etc
}

class John{
   //Member variables, functions, etc
}

module.exports = {
  Jack : Jack,
  John : John
}

And access these classes as you have correctly mentioned:

var People = require('./People.js');
var JackInstance = new People.Jack();
var JohnInstance = new People.John();

edited Mar 23, 2019 at 11:24

Inyoka

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answered Dec 19, 2016 at 17:52

Mukesh Sharma

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4 Comments

Native Coder Over a year ago

REALLY!? I tried this exact method earlier! Let me try again. I'll accept your ans asap.

Native Coder Over a year ago

As it turns out, I just had a typo. Thanks!!

Shashi Over a year ago

@MukeshSharma: I want class Jack and John will be in a separate file like jack.js and john.js...then will require people.js and want to access jack instance using people.jack. could you please help?

Ridhwaan Shakeel Over a year ago

would destructuring work? var {John, Jack} = require('./People.js'); var JackInstance = new Jack();

Peter Mortensen · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-06 19:14:58Z

You can also do this in a shorter form, using destructuring assignments (which are supported natively starting from Node.js v6.0.0):

// people.js

class Jack {
  // ...
}

class John {
  // ...
}

module.exports = { Jack, John }

Importing:

// index.js

const { Jack, John } = require('./people.js');

Or even like this if you want aliased require assignments:

// index.js

const {
  Jack: personJack, John: personJohn,
} = require('./people.js');

In the latter case, personJack and personJohn will reference your classes.

A word of warning:

Destructuring could be dangerous in sense that it's prone to producing unexpected errors. It's relatively easy to forget curly brackets on export or to accidentally include them on require.

Node.js 12 update:

Lately ECMAScript Modules received an extended support in Node.js 12.*, introducing the convenient usage of import statement to accomplish the same task (currently, Node.js should be started with a flag --experimental-modules in order to make them available).

// people.mjs

export class Jack {
  // ...
}

export class John {
  // ...
}

Notice that files that adhere to modules convention should have an .mjs extension.

// index.mjs

import {
  Jack as personJack, John as personJohn,
} from './people.mjs';

This is much better in a sense of robustness and stability, as an attempt to import non-existing export from the module will throw an exception similar to:

SyntaxError: The requested module 'x' does not provide an export named 'y'

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