Uncaught syntaxerror: invalid or unexpected token

Are you dealing with uncaught syntaxerror: invalid or unexpected token error message while working with JavaScript?

And you’re struggling with how you are going to troubleshoot this error? Well, you just have to keep on reading!

In this article, we’ll explore how to fix the syntaxerror: invalid or unexpected token error message in JavaScript.

What is “uncaught syntaxerror invalid or unexpected token”?

The error message uncaught syntaxerror: Invalid or unexpected token occurs when there is a problem with the syntax of your code.

This error indicates that the JavaScript interpreter encounters an unexpected token. This unexpected token could be a misplaced punctuation mark, a misspelled keyword, or any other element that violates the syntax rules of JavaScript.

Moreover, this error occurs when a specific language construct was expected, but you provide something else.

Why does “invalid or unexpected token” SyntaxError occur?

This error message can occur because of several factors. Some of the factors why does this error raise includes the following:

❌ Missing or extra brackets {}, parentheses (), or commas(,) in your code.

❌ Missing closing quote of a string literal, or some unnormal characters in the JavaScript code.

❌ Improper Usage of Keywords or Reserved Words.

❌ Forget to close a script tag and points to an incorrect path.

How to fix “uncaught syntaxerror: invalid or unexpected token”?

To fix the uncaught syntaxerror invalid or unexpected token error, check the data to be displayed on the page and add quotes to the strings or encrypt the strings. Also, check your code for any missing or extra brackets, parentheses, or commas.

Solution 1: Ensure script tags are in the correct paths

For example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />

  
    <script
    
    </script>
  </head>

  <body></body>
</html>

Solution 2: Check for invalid characters

You may have an invalid character in your code for instance, directly after a curly bracket.
You can try copying the code into your browser console to see if there are any red dots it indicates invalid characters.

Solution 3: Ensure you don’t have extra or missing or brackets, parentheses and commas

Example 1:

for (let a = 0; a < 10; ++i) {
    console.log(a);
}}

As you can see, there’s an extra bracket, so to fix the error, we just simply remove it.

Corrected code:

✅for (let a = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
    console.log(a);
}

Example 2:

const samplearr = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]]  

In this example, we can see that there’s an extra square bracket, the same thing we should do. We have to remove the extra square bracket to resolve the error.

Corrected code:


✅ const samplearr = [10, 20, 30, 40, 50]

Example 3:

const samplearr = ['x', 'y' 'z']

Here, we can see that there’s a missing comma, so to resolve this error, we need to put a comma(,).

Corrected code:

✅  const samplearr = ['x', 'y', 'z'] 

Example 4:

const sample str = "itsourcecode.com 

Here, we forgot to put the missing double quote. To resolve it, we need to put the missing end quote(“).

Corrected code:

✅const str = "itsourcecode.com"

Conclusion

In conclusion, the error message uncaught syntaxerror: Invalid or unexpected token occurs when there is a problem with the syntax of your code.

This error indicates that the JavaScript interpreter encounters an unexpected token. This unexpected token could be a misplaced punctuation mark, a misspelled keyword, or any other element that violates the syntax rules of JavaScript.

This article already discussed what this error is all about and multiple ways to resolve this error.

By executing the solutions above, you can master this Syntaxerror with the help of this guide.

You could also check out other “SyntaxError” articles that may help you in the future if you encounter them.

We are hoping that this article helps you fix the error. Thank you for reading itsourcecoders 😊

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