Usage #

Node.js #

Using Faker is as easy as importing it from @faker-js/faker.

import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';

const randomName = faker.name.fullName(); // Rowan Nikolaus
const randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Kassandra.Haley@erich.biz

Or if you using CommonJS

const { faker } = require('@faker-js/faker');

const randomName = faker.name.fullName(); // Rowan Nikolaus
const randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Kassandra.Haley@erich.biz

Browser #

<script type="module">
  import { faker } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@faker-js/faker';

  // Caitlyn Kerluke
  const randomName = faker.name.fullName();

  // Rusty@arne.info
  const randomEmail = faker.internet.email();
</script>

CDN/Deno #

import { faker } from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@faker-js/faker';

const randomName = faker.name.findName(); // Willie Bahringer
const randomEmail = faker.internet.email(); // Tomasa_Ferry14@hotmail.com

Alternative CDN links #

esm:

• https://esm.sh/@faker-js/faker
• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@faker-js/faker/+esm

cjs:

• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@faker-js/faker

TypeScript Support #

Faker supports TypeScript out of the box, so you don't have to install any extra packages.

In order to have Faker working properly, you need to check if these compilerOptions are set correctly in your tsconfig file:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "moduleResolution": "Node"
  }
}

Create complex objects #

Faker mostly generates values for primitives. This is because in the real world, most object schemas simply look very different. So, if you want to create an object, you most likely need to write a factory function for it.

For our example, we use TypeScript to strongly type our model. The models we will use are described below:

import type { SexType } from '@faker-js/faker';

type SubscriptionTier = 'free' | 'basic' | 'business';

class User {
  _id: string;
  avatar: string;
  birthday: Date;
  email: string;
  firstName: string;
  lastName: string;
  sex: SexType;
  subscriptionTier: SubscriptionTier;
}

As you can see, your User model probably looks completely different from the one you have in your codebase. One thing to keep an eye on is the subscriptionTier property, as it is not simply a string, but only one of the strings defined in the SubscriptionTier type ('free' or 'basic' or 'business'). Also, in a real scenario, your model should not depend on a type of a third party library (SexType in this case).

Let's create our first user factory function:

import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';

class User { ... }

function createRandomUser(): User {
  return {
    _id: faker.datatype.uuid(),
    avatar: faker.image.avatar(),
    birthday: faker.date.birthdate(),
    email: faker.internet.email(),
    firstName: faker.name.firstName(),
    lastName: faker.name.lastName(),
    sex: faker.name.sexType(),
    subscriptionTier: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['free', 'basic', 'business']),
  };
}

const user = createRandomUser();

At this point, we have a perfectly working function that will work for most purposes. But we can take this a step further. Currently, all properties are just randomly generated. This can lead to some undesirable values being produced. For example: The sex property having value 'female' while firstName is 'Bob'.

Let's refactor our current code:

import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';

function createRandomUser(): User {
  const sex = faker.name.sexType();
  const firstName = faker.name.firstName(sex);
  const lastName = faker.name.lastName();
  const email = faker.internet.email(firstName, lastName);

  return {
    _id: faker.datatype.uuid(),
    avatar: faker.image.avatar(),
    birthday: faker.date.birthdate(),
    email,
    firstName,
    lastName,
    sex,
    subscriptionTier: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['free', 'basic', 'business']),
  };
}

const user = createRandomUser();

As you can see, we changed the order in which we generate our values. First, we generate a sex value to use it as input for the generation of firstName. Then we generate the lastName. Here, we could also pass in the sex value as argument, but in our use-case there are no special cases in where a female last name would differ from a male one. By doing this first, we are able to pass both names into the email generation function. This allows the value to be more reasonable based on the provided arguments.

But we can take this even another step further. Opposite to the _id property that uses an uuid implementation, which is unique by design, the email property potentially isn't. But, in most use-cases, this would be desirable.

Faker has your back, with another helper method:

import { faker } from '@faker-js/faker';

function createRandomUser(): User {
  const sex = this.faker.name.sexType();
  const firstName = faker.name.firstName(sex);
  const lastName = faker.name.lastName();
  const email = faker.helpers.unique(faker.internet.email, [
    firstName,
    lastName,
  ]);

  return {
    _id: faker.datatype.uuid(),
    avatar: faker.image.avatar(),
    birthday: faker.date.birthdate(),
    email,
    firstName,
    lastName,
    sex,
    subscriptionTier: faker.helpers.arrayElement(['free', 'basic', 'business']),
  };
}

const user = createRandomUser();

By wrapping Faker's email function with the unique helper function, we ensure that the return value of email is always unique.

Congratulations, you should now be able to create any complex object you desire. Happy faking 🥳.