What does this line mean in JS: "const { time } = require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers");"

Question

Could anyone explain what these lines of code mean?

const { expect } = require("chai");
const hre = require("hardhat");
const { time } = require(" @nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers");

In this line - const { time } = require(" @nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers");

We assign the path to the folder (hardhat-network-helpers) to the time variable? And what does this sign @ mean and where can I read about this sign?

thank in advance!

Answer 1

This answer assumes you are using NodeJS and commonjs and do not overwrite the require function

require() (https://nodejs.org/api/modules.html) is commonjs module import command it returns a value of module.exports which you assign in module here package @nomicfoundation/ hardhat-network-helpers returns an object and const { time } = ... means assign const time = require(...).time here is the JavaScript syntax reference here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Operators/Destructuring_assignment

@ in @nomicfoundation/hardhat-network-helpers means it takes the package hardhat-network-helpers with scope @nomicfoundation this is npm's package naming rule refer to https://docs.npmjs.com/cli/v9/using-npm/scope