What is tree shaking in JavaScript module bundlers and what syntax enables it?

Question

JavaScript Professional — Medium

What is tree shaking in JavaScript module bundlers and what syntax enables it?

Accepted Answer

Tree shaking in JavaScript module bundlers refers to dead code elimination, where unused exports are removed from the final bundle at build time. This process requires static ES module syntax (import/export) to allow bundlers to analyze which exports are used. CommonJS require() is dynamic and doesn't support reliable tree shaking.