I am following a tutorial on Discord.js. I have had to change require to import for node:fs and node:path.

On line 34, however: (const command = require(filePath);) there is another require statement that's throwing the same error about E5. My understanding from articles like this is import is always run at the beginning of the file. So, how do I deal with this error? ReferenceError: require is not defined in ES module scope, you can use import instead

I would also love to understand, why all the tutorials I see use require, but I always get an error and have to convert to import.

Here's my code:

import dotenv  from "dotenv";
dotenv.config();
const token = process.env.DTOKEN;

// const fs = require('node:fs');
import fs from 'node:fs';


// https://bobbyhadz.com/blog/javascript-dirname-is-not-defined-in-es-module-scope
import {fileURLToPath} from 'url';
const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
console.log(import.meta.url);

// const path = require('node:path');
import path from 'node:path';
// import path from 'path'
const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);


// Require the necessary discord.js classes
import { Client, Collection, Intents } from "discord.js";
// const { token } = require('./config.json');

// Create a new client instance
const client = new Client({ intents: [Intents.FLAGS.GUILDS] });

client.commands = new Collection();
const commandsPath = path.join(__dirname, 'commands');
const commandFiles = fs.readdirSync(commandsPath).filter(file => file.endsWith('.js'));


for (const file of commandFiles) {
    const filePath = path.join(commandsPath, file);
    const command = require(filePath);  // *** here's the line with the error ***
    // Set a new item in the Collection
    // With the key as the command name and the value as the exported module
    client.commands.set(command.data.name, command);
}

// When the client is ready, run this code (only once)
client.once('ready', () => {
    console.log('Ready!');
});


client.on('interactionCreate', async interaction => {
    if (!interaction.isCommand()) return;

    const { commandName } = interaction;

    const command = client.commands.get(interaction.commandName);

    if (!command) return;

    try {
        await command.execute(interaction);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error(error);
        await interaction.reply({ content: 'There was an error while executing this command!', ephemeral: true });
    }
});

// Login to Discord with your client's token
client.login(token);