properties-file

properties-file

.properties file parser, editor, formatter and bundler integrations.

Installation

Doing a major version update? Check our migration guides.

Add the package as a dependency:

npm install properties-file

What's in it for me?

• A modern library written entirely in TypeScript that exactly reproduces the Properties Java implementation.
• Works for both Node.js applications and browsers that support at least ES5.
• Flexible, tree-shakable APIs — import only what you need, and your bundler will exclude the rest:
  • getProperties converts .properties content to a key-value pair object.
  • Properties provides lossless parsing with a full data model — every element (properties, comments, blank lines, whitespace, duplicate keys) is preserved and can be round-tripped exactly or normalized via format() options.
  • PropertiesEditor enables insertion, edition, and removal of entries while preserving formatting.
  • escapeKey and escapeValue convert any content to .properties compatible format.
  • Bundler integrations for Webpack, Rollup/Vite, esbuild, and Bun to import .properties files directly. See BUNDLER.md.
• Tiny with 0 dependencies — getProperties is only 970 B min+gzip.
• Runs everywhere — compiled to ES5, works in any browser and on Node.js all the way back to v0.4.0 (2011, the first stable release with ES5 support). Verified via Docker.
• 100% test coverage based on the output from a Java implementation.
• Active maintenance (many popular .properties packages have been inactive for years). See our detailed comparison with other packages.

Usage

We have put a lot of effort into incorporating TSDoc into all our APIs. If you are unsure about how to use certain APIs provided in our examples, please check directly in your IDE.

getProperties (converting .properties to an object)

The most common use case for .properties files is for Node.js applications that need to read the file's content into a simple key-value pair object. Here is how this can be done with a single API call:

import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
import { getProperties } from 'properties-file'

console.log(getProperties(readFileSync('hello-world.properties')))

Output:

{ hello: 'hello', world: 'world' }

Properties (lossless parsing with full data model)

The Properties class parses a .properties file into a lossless data model where every element — properties, comments, blank lines — is preserved in order. This is useful when you need to inspect, analyze, or transform .properties files while retaining their exact structure.

import { readFileSync } from 'node:fs'
import { PropertiesNodeType, Properties } from 'properties-file/parser'

const properties = new Properties(readFileSync('example.properties'))

// Access all nodes in file order (properties, comments, blank lines).
for (const node of properties.nodes) {
  switch (node.type) {
    case PropertiesNodeType.PROPERTY:
      console.log(`${node.key} = ${node.value}`)
      break
    case PropertiesNodeType.COMMENT:
      console.log(`Comment: ${node.delimiter}${node.body}`)
      break
    case PropertiesNodeType.BLANK:
      console.log('(blank line)')
      break
  }
}

// Get a simple key-value object (last-wins for duplicate keys).
console.log(properties.toObject())

// Lossless round-trip: format() reproduces the exact original content.
console.log(properties.format() === readFileSync('example.properties', 'utf8')) // true

Finding key collisions

import { Properties } from 'properties-file/parser'

const properties = new Properties(
  'hello = hello1\nworld = world1\nworld = world2\nhello = hello2\nworld = world3'
)

const collisions = properties.getKeyCollisions()
collisions.forEach((collision) => {
  const lines = collision.nodes.map((node) => node.startingLineNumber)
  console.log(`Key '${collision.key}' appears on lines ${lines.join(', ')}`)
})

/**
 * Outputs:
 *
 * Key 'hello' appears on lines 1, 4
 * Key 'world' appears on lines 2, 3, 5
 */

Normalizing output

Passing options to format() produces a normalized version of the file with granular control over formatting:

import { Properties } from 'properties-file/parser'

const properties = new Properties('# comment\n\n    key : value\n    key : updated')

console.log(
  properties.format({
    removeComments: true, // Strip all comments
    removeBlankLines: true, // Strip all blank lines
    removeLeadingWhitespace: true, // Strip indentation
    deduplicateKeys: true, // Keep only last occurrence
    separatorChar: '=', // Standardize separator
    separatorLeading: ' ', // Space before =
    separatorTrailing: ' ', // Space after =
  })
)

/**
 * Outputs:
 *
 * key = updated
 */

PropertiesEditor (editing .properties content)

The PropertiesEditor extends Properties with methods to insert, update, delete, and upsert entries while preserving formatting.

import { PropertiesEditor } from 'properties-file/editor'

const properties = new PropertiesEditor('hello = hello\n# This is a comment\nworld = world')

properties.insertComment('This is a multiline\ncomment before `newKey3`')
properties.insert('newKey3', 'This is my third key')

properties.insert('newKey1', 'This is my first new key', {
  referenceKey: 'newKey3',
  position: 'before',
  comment: 'Below are the new keys being edited',
  commentDelimiter: '!',
})

properties.insert('newKey2', 'hello', {
  referenceKey: 'newKey1',
  position: 'after',
  escapeUnicode: true,
})

properties.delete('hello')
properties.update('world', {
  newValue: 'new world',
})
console.log(properties.format())

/**
 * Outputs:
 *
 * # This is a comment
 * world = new world
 * ! Below are the new keys being edited
 * newKey1 = This is my first new key
 * newKey2 = hello
 * # This is a multiline
 * # comment before `newKey3`
 * newKey3 = This is my third key
 */

The editor also provides upsert (update or insert) and deleteAll (remove all occurrences of a duplicate key). Check your IDE for all available methods and options via TSDoc.

Bundler Integrations

If you would like to import .properties directly using import, this package provides integrations for all major bundlers: Webpack/Rspack, Rollup/Vite/Rolldown, esbuild, and Bun.

See BUNDLER.md for setup instructions and examples.

By adding these configurations you should now be able to import directly .properties files just like this:

import { properties as helloWorld } from './hello-world.properties'

console.dir(helloWorld)

Output:

{ "hello": "world" }

Why another .properties file package?

There are over 20 similar packages available, but most are abandoned, incomplete, or not compliant with the Java specification. See our detailed comparison for benchmarks, compliance tests, and a feature matrix against the top 5 packages. The short version:

• 100% Java spec compliance — the only package (alongside properties-parser) to pass all test cases.
• 3–7x faster than alternatives on a 10,000-entry file.
• Lossless data model — no other package preserves comments, blank lines, whitespace, and duplicate keys for round-trip editing.

Unfortunately, the .properties file specification is not well-documented. One reason for this is that it was originally used in Java to store configurations. Today, most applications handle this using JSON, YAML, or other modern formats because these formats are more flexible.

So why .properties files?

While many options exist today to handle configurations, .properties files remain one of the best options to store localizable strings (also known as messages). On the Java side, PropertyResourceBundle is how most implementations handle localization today. Because of its simplicity and maturity, .properties files remain one of the best options today when it comes to internationalization (i18n):

File format	Key/value based	Supports inline comments	Built for localization	Good linguistic tools support
.properties	Yes	Yes	Yes (Resource Bundles)	Yes
JSON	No (can do more)	No (requires JSON5)	No	Depends on the schema
YAML	No (can do more)	Yes	No	Depends on the schema

Having good JavaScript/TypeScript support for .properties files offers more internationalization (i18n) options.

How does this package work?

Our goal is to offer parity with the Java implementation, which is the closest thing to a specification for .properties files. The package provides two parsing paths:

• getProperties — a fast, functional parser optimized for the common case of converting .properties content to a key-value object. Uses charCodeAt-based scanning with zero-copy optimizations.

• Properties — a lossless parser that produces an ordered array of typed nodes (PropertyNode, CommentNode, BlankLineNode). Every element in the file is preserved, enabling exact round-trip reconstruction via format() and flexible normalization by passing options to format().

Both parsers are fully compliant with the Java Properties specification and produce identical key-value output. Just like Java, if a Unicode-escaped character (\u) is malformed, an error will be thrown.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for project principles, architecture, code style, and development commands.

Additional references

• Java Test Sandbox
• Java's Properties class documentation
• Java's PropertyResourceBundle documentation
• Java's Internationalization Guide
• Wikipedia's .properties page

Special mention

Thanks to @calibr, the creator of properties-file version 1.0, for letting us use the https://www.npmjs.com/package/properties-file package name. We hope that it will make it easier to find our package.

Similar packages

Other packages similar to properties-file

properties-reader

The properties-reader package provides similar functionality for reading and manipulating .properties files. It offers a more fluent API for accessing properties and supports nested properties. Compared to properties-file, it may be more user-friendly for complex configurations.

node-properties

The node-properties package is another alternative for handling .properties files. It provides basic read and write capabilities but lacks some of the advanced features found in properties-file. It is a simpler option for straightforward use cases.

config

The config package is a more comprehensive solution for managing configuration files in Node.js applications. It supports multiple file formats, including .properties, JSON, and YAML. While it offers more features, it may be overkill for simple .properties file manipulation.