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babel-traverse
Advanced tools
The Babel Traverse module maintains the overall tree state, and is responsible for replacing, removing, and adding nodes
Package description
The babel-traverse package is part of the Babel compiler ecosystem and provides the ability to traverse and manipulate the abstract syntax tree (AST) generated from JavaScript code. It allows developers to analyze and rewrite code programmatically, which is useful for building compilers, code transformation tools, linters, and more.
Visiting Nodes
This feature allows you to visit and manipulate nodes in the AST. In the provided code, we change all identifiers named 'n' to 'x' in a simple function.
const babel = require('@babel/core');
const traverse = require('babel-traverse').default;
const code = `function square(n) { return n * n; }`;
const ast = babel.parse(code);
traverse(ast, {
enter(path) {
if (path.isIdentifier({ name: 'n' })) {
path.node.name = 'x';
}
}
});
console.log(babel.generate(ast).code);
Scope Manipulation
This feature involves manipulating the scope of variables. In the example, within a function declaration, the variable 'b' is renamed to 'c'.
const babel = require('@babel/core');
const traverse = require('babel-traverse').default;
const code = `let a = 2; function test() { let b = 4; }`;
const ast = babel.parse(code);
traverse(ast, {
FunctionDeclaration(path) {
path.scope.rename('b', 'c');
}
});
console.log(babel.generate(ast).code);
Recast is a JavaScript AST manipulation library that allows you to parse, modify, and print your code while preserving the original formatting as much as possible. It differs from babel-traverse in that it focuses more on preserving the code's original format and less on providing a comprehensive transformation toolkit.
Esprima is a high performance, standard-compliant ECMAScript parser that also allows you to traverse and analyze JavaScript code. Unlike babel-traverse, Esprima does not focus on transformations but rather on parsing and providing a detailed AST.
Readme
babel-traverse maintains the overall tree state, and is responsible for replacing, removing, and adding nodes.
$ npm install --save babel-traverse
We can use it alongside Babylon to traverse and update nodes:
import * as babylon from "babylon";
import traverse from "babel-traverse";
const code = `function square(n) {
return n * n;
}`;
const ast = babylon.parse(code);
traverse(ast, {
enter(path) {
if (path.isIdentifier({ name: "n" })) {
path.node.name = "x";
}
}
});
FAQs
The Babel Traverse module maintains the overall tree state, and is responsible for replacing, removing, and adding nodes
We found that babel-traverse demonstrated a not healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released a year ago. It has 5 open source maintainers collaborating on the project.
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Employee Spotlight
Philipp Burckhardt recounts his journey from childhood computer fascinations, to building an e-learning platform at Carnegie Mellon University, and on to his current role at Socket.
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