SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list

The JavaScript exception "missing ) after argument list" occurs when there is an error with how a function is called. This might be a typo, a missing operator, or an unescaped string.

Message#

SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list (V8-based & Firefox)
SyntaxError: Unexpected identifier 'x'. Expected ')' to end an argument list. (Safari)

Error type#

{{jsxref("SyntaxError")}}.

What went wrong?#

There is an error with how a function is called. This might be a typo, a missing operator, or an unescaped string, for example.

Examples#

Because there is no "+" operator to concatenate the string, JavaScript expects the argument for the log function to be just "PI: ". In that case, it should be terminated by a closing parenthesis.

```js-nolint example-bad console.log("PI: " Math.PI); // SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list

You can correct the `log` call by adding the `+` operator:

```js example-good
console.log("PI: " + Math.PI);
// "PI: 3.141592653589793"

Alternatively, you can consider using a template literal, or take advantage of the fact that console.log accepts multiple parameters:

``js example-good console.log(PI: ${Math.PI}`); console.log("PI:", Math.PI);

### Unterminated strings

```js-nolint example-bad
console.log('"Java" + "Script" = \"' + "Java" + 'Script\");
// SyntaxError: missing ) after argument list

Here JavaScript thinks that you meant to have ); inside the string and ignores it, and it ends up not knowing that you meant the ); to end the function console.log. To fix this, we could put a ' after the "Script" string:

js example-good console.log('"Java" + "Script" = "' + "Java" + 'Script"'); // '"Java" + "Script" = "JavaScript"'

See also#

• Functions guide