javascript - using await on global scope without async keyword

Question

I am trying to do something like this on global scope in nodejs REPL. As per my understanding both the following statements are valid. see docs

let x = await Promise.resolve(2);
let y = await 2;

However, both these statements are throwing an error.

Can somebody explain why? my node version is v8.9.4

Answer 1

await can only be used within a function that is labeled async, so there are two ways you can approach this.

Note: There is a proposal in place that may eventually allow the usage of Top level await calls.

The first way is to create a self invoked function like this:

(async function() {
  let x = await Promise.resolve(2)
  let y = await 2
  
  console.log(x, y)
})()