Solidity compiler throwing [ ':1:1: ParserError: Expected pragma, import directive or contract/interface/library definition.\n

Question

Trying to compile below solidity code:

Deploy.js

let path = require('path');

let fs = require('fs'); let solc = require('solc');

let voterPath = path.resolve(__dirname,'Voter.sol'); let srcCodeObj = fs.readFileSync(voterPath, 'UTF-8');

let voterInput = { language:'Solidity', sources:{ 'Voter.sol':{ content:srcCodeObj, }, }, settings:{ outputSelection:{ '':{ '':["abi", "evm.bytecode"], }, }, }, };

try { console.log("Compiling"); let output = solc.compile(JSON.stringify(voterInput)); console.log(output); console.log("Compiled"); } catch(Ex) { console.log("Exception occured"); console.log(Ex); }

Voter.sol

pragma solidity >0.4.2;

contract Voter {

struct OptionPos {
    uint pos;
    bool exists;
}

/*constructor(string memory passedName) public {
}*/

// Fields
uint[] public votes;
string[] public options;
mapping(address=>bool) hasVoted;
mapping(string=>OptionPos) posOfOption;
bool votingStarted;

function addOption(string memory option) public {
    require(!votingStarted);
    options.push(option);
}

function startVoting() public{
    require(!votingStarted);
    //votes.length = options.length;
    
    for (uint cnt = 0; cnt < options.length; cnt++) {
        OptionPos memory option = OptionPos(cnt, true);
        posOfOption[options[cnt]] = option;
    }
    votingStarted = true;
}

function vote(uint option) public {
    require(option >= 0 && option < options.length);
    require(!(hasVoted[msg.sender]));
    votes[option] += 1;
    hasVoted[msg.sender] = true;
}

function vote(string memory optionName) public {
    require(!(hasVoted[msg.sender]));
    
    OptionPos memory optionPos = posOfOption[optionName];
    require(optionPos.exists);
    
    votes[optionPos.pos] += 1;
    hasVoted[msg.sender] = true;
}

function getVotes() public view returns (uint[] memory) {
    return votes;
}

}

Facing below error: { contracts: {}, errors: [ ':1:1: ParserError: Expected pragma, import directive or contract/interface/library definition.\n' + ' ... { ... \n' + ' ^\n' ], sourceList: [ '' ], sources: {} }

Answer 1

You want to check if your .sol file is encoded in UTF-8 without BOM. You can open your contract file in a text editor such as VS Code or Notepad++ and go to encoding and covert it to UTF-8.