# Reading files with Node

> Learn how to read files in Node.js with the fs module, using the asynchronous readFile() and synchronous readFileSync(), and why streams suit big files.

Author: Flavio Copes | Published: 2018-08-21 | Canonical: https://flaviocopes.com/node-reading-files/

The simplest way to read a file in Node is to use the `fs.readFile()` method, passing it the file path and a callback function that will be called with the file data (and the error):

```js
const fs = require('fs')

fs.readFile('/Users/flavio/test.txt', (err, data) => {
  if (err) {
    console.error(err)
    return
  }
  console.log(data)
})
```

Alternatively, you can use the synchronous version `fs.readFileSync()`:

```js
const fs = require('fs')

try {
  const data = fs.readFileSync('/Users/flavio/test.txt', 'utf8')
  console.log(data)
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err)
}
```

The default encoding is utf8, but you can specify a custom encoding using a a second parameter.

Both `fs.readFile()` and `fs.readFileSync()` read the full content of the file in memory before returning the data.

This means that big files are going to have a major impact on your memory consumption and speed of execution of the program.

In this case, a better option is to read the file content using streams.