@babel/generator

Turns an AST into code.

Install

npm install --save-dev @babel/generator

Usage

import { parse } from "@babel/parser";
import generate from "@babel/generator";

const code = "class Example {}";
const ast = parse(code);

const output = generate(
  ast,
  {
    /* options */
  },
  code
);

Options

Options for formatting output:

name	type	default	description
auxiliaryCommentAfter	string		Optional string to add as a block comment at the end of the output file
auxiliaryCommentBefore	string		Optional string to add as a block comment at the start of the output file
comments	boolean	`true`	Should comments be included in output
compact	boolean or `'auto'`	`opts.minified`	Set to `true` to avoid adding whitespace for formatting
concise	boolean	`false`	Set to `true` to reduce whitespace (but not as much as `opts.compact`)
decoratorsBeforeExport	boolean		Set to `true` to print decorators before `export` in output.
filename	string		Used in warning messages
jsescOption	object		Use `jsesc` to process literals. `jsesc` is applied to numbers only if `jsescOption.numbers` (added in `v7.9.0`) is present. You can customize `jsesc` by passing options to it.
jsonCompatibleStrings	boolean	`false`	Set to true to run `jsesc` with "json": true to print "\u00A9" vs. "©";
minified	boolean	`false`	Should the output be minified
retainFunctionParens	boolean	`false`	Retain parens around function expressions (could be used to change engine parsing behavior)
retainLines	boolean	`false`	Attempt to use the same line numbers in the output code as in the source code (helps preserve stack traces)
shouldPrintComment	function	`opts.comments`	Function that takes a comment (as a string) and returns `true` if the comment should be included in the output. By default, comments are included if `opts.comments` is `true` or if `opts.minified` is `false` and the comment contains `@preserve` or `@license`

Options for source maps:

name	type	default	description
sourceMaps	boolean	`false`	Enable generating source maps
sourceRoot	string		A root for all relative URLs in the source map
sourceFileName	string		The filename for the source code (i.e. the code in the `code` argument). This will only be used if `code` is a string.

AST from Multiple Sources

In most cases, Babel does a 1:1 transformation of input-file to output-file. However, you may be dealing with AST constructed from multiple sources - JS files, templates, etc. If this is the case, and you want the sourcemaps to reflect the correct sources, you'll need to pass an object to generate as the code parameter. Keys should be the source filenames, and values should be the source content.

Here's an example of what that might look like:

import { parse } from "@babel/parser";
import generate from "@babel/generator";

const a = "var a = 1;";
const b = "var b = 2;";
const astA = parse(a, { sourceFilename: "a.js" });
const astB = parse(b, { sourceFilename: "b.js" });
const ast = {
  type: "Program",
  body: [].concat(astA.program.body, astB.program.body),
};

const { code, map } = generate(
  ast,
  { sourceMaps: true },
  {
    "a.js": a,
    "b.js": b,
  }
);

// Sourcemap will point to both a.js and b.js where appropriate.