83

A friend wrote some code for me, and there was one file with a weird syntax error in it. After a bit of hunting, I narrowed it down to this section of code, which should reproduce the error:

var say = functіon(message) {
  alert(message);
  return message;
};

say(say("Goodbye!"));

When I run this, I see an error in the Internet Explorer console that says SCRIPT1004: Expected ';'. I don't see a semicolon missing anywhere, and I can't imagine where it wants me to put one.

Where does it expect a semicolon and why does it expect a semicolon there?

Improve this question
11
  • 2
    You get an error in Firebug too: jsfiddle.net/AdHZY Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 3:00
  • 27
    You probably have a non-printable character in there somewhere which is breaking things. Retype the code manually and it will work correctly. Copy/Pasting your code exactly produces errors, but manually entering it doesn't. Commented Feb 12, 2012 at 3:03
  • 27
    It's a prank. Most definitively. Perhaps I am going to play this on someone. Commented Aug 9, 2012 at 22:04
  • 17
    Well, the syntax highlighter of StackOverflow reveals it already: the on part of the word function is displayed in a different color. Commented Feb 8, 2021 at 13:39
  • 2
    For reference, the character is Unicode U+0456 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BYELORUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN I Commented Jan 5, 2022 at 5:55

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
139

Your issue is the fact that the i in functіon is the Unicode character U+0456 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BYELORUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN I. If you change it to a 'normal' i it should just work.

But now I'm wondering how the hack :) did you get a Cyrillic character there :P

Screenshot of EditPlus showing the 'i' highlighted, with the status bar showing its codepoint, 0456

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

10 Comments

@Rocket yup it is. Char 456.
Out of curiosity, how did you go about figuring out exactly what was wrong?
@CCCason It just had to be since the code looked ok. Just copy/pasted the code in a decent texteditor which displays the character codes. Could also have used a hex-editor if I wanted to be really cool ;)
@CCCason: Highlight the i in the question, right click, and select "seach".
i noticed it when i was looking at the snipped on jsfiddle. the selection box around the і was a little bigger than the other characters around it.
|
18

You have misspelled the "function" :)

var say = function(message){
    alert(message);
    return message;
};

say(say("Goodbye!"));

You have inserted functіon :)

Improve this answer

4 Comments

Visually, it's not misspelled. I suspect as @Rocket suggests one of the letters is another symbol in disguise.
@Rocket not in his case. He has a character that appears as normal but it's not. Even my IDE goes red with his code :)
its visually look different when i paste it on my vscode
This is an answer from 10 years ago. Most likely it's irrelevant today, but back in the days people used to do coding with Notepad++ and such errors weren't necessary obvious. :)
11

I've copied and pasted it in my notepad++ and your code look like this. Retype your function keyword, i is replaced by ?.

var say = funct?on(message) {
  alert(message);
  return message;
};
say(say("Goodbye!"));
Improve this answer

Comments

8

I copied your code into jsfiddle, and Chrome too gives an error. I deleted the word "function", and re-typed "function", and it worked fine.

There must be some extra character there.

Improve this answer

1 Comment

There's no other explanation that makes sense. Demo of retyping function: jsfiddle.net/AdHZY/1
4

Verify with this page: https://r12a.github.io/uniview/?charlist=funct%D1%96on(message)

It displays information of each character.

enter image description here

Improve this answer

Comments

4

In fact, you inserted Cyrillic "i" instead of normal "i". I get the fellow errors in VSCode:

  • ',' expected. (1, 29)
  • ',' expected. (2, 10)
  • Declaration or statement expected. (4, 3)

You can try evaluating "functіon" === "function" as well:

console.log("functіon" === "function")

However, when I try to compare it by drawing "function" myself, it returns true:

console.log("function" === "function")

Also, I didn't include semicolons here; in javascript they aren't necessary.

Improve this answer

Comments

2

I had a similar problem and the same error code when debugging someone else's work. To fix this I pasted the section of code into Notepad and then re-copied it back to Visual Studio. The error went away. I think whoever wrote the code originally must have copied it from somewhere with some strange characters in it.

Improve this answer

Comments

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.