The answer
Because the parser fails to build an AST. Without an AST, the engine cannot compile or execute the code. One syntax error invalidates the entire script or module.
JavaScript Syntax Parsing and the Abstract Syntax Tree
Why does a syntax error break the whole script?
More FAQs in JavaScript Syntax Parsing and the Abstract Syntax Tree
A tree representation of source code structure. The parser breaks code into tokens and builds an AST that the engine can compile, and that tools like Babel and ESLint can analyze.
Lexing (tokenizing) splits raw characters into tokens like keywords, identifiers, and operators. Parsing takes those tokens and builds the Abstract Syntax Tree.
Yes. Babel parses code into an AST, transforms the tree, then prints it back to source. ESLint walks the AST to find patterns that violate rules.
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