what does readfilesync return code example

Example 1: readfilesync

const fs = require('fs')

try {
  const data = fs.readFileSync('/Users/joe/test.txt', 'utf8')
  console.log(data)
} catch (err) {
  console.error(err)
}

Example 2: readfilesync return buffer

squadJSON = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('./squads/squad' + whichSquad + '.json', 'utf8'));