maybe-none

Typescript Maybe Implementation

Description

A simple implementation of the Maybe monad in Typescript. Useful for optional values / fields, error handling etc, while keeping strong typing.

Documentation

The Maybe type is a union of Some and None. To create a Some
or None use the functions provided, Maybe.Some(value) and Maybe.None()

Example

import * as Maybe from "maybe-ts"

const some: Maybe<number> = Maybe.Some(5) // Some<number> with value 5
const none: Maybe<number> = Maybe.None() // None

We can use Maybe.isSome() and Maybe.isNone() to check and
(if using typescript) infer the type of the Maybe

if (Maybe.isSome(some)) { // some: Some<number>
    // do something
}

if (Maybe.isNone(none)) { // none: None
    // handle error or whatever
}

Checking whether a Maybe is Some or None however is usually
only done at the end of a pipeline or even not at all. Maybes
are monads and so can be mapped to other Maybes.
This is done using Maybe.map() and Maybe.andThen().

Maybe.map takes a map function of T => U for Maybe<T> while
Maybe.andThen takes a map function of T => Maybe<U> for Maybe<T>

use Maybe.map for simple transformations and Maybe.andThen for when
the function may returns a Maybe for some reason such as parsing error or
an optional property

const maybe_double = Maybe.map((x: number) => x * 2)
const doubledMaybe = maybe_double(some) // Some<number> with value 10
const doubledNone = maybe_double(none) // None


// parseInt: string => Maybe<number>
// numberToMonth: number => Maybe<string>

const parseMonth: string => Maybe<string>
    = input => {
        Maybe.andThen(numberToMonth)(parseInt(string))
    }

After chaining Maybe.map and Maybe.andThen calls (it's useful and much
cleaner to have a pipe() implementation) you can either use isNone or isSome
to decide how to continue or use Maybe.withDefault to return either the
T contained by the Maybe or a default T in the case of a None

const default = Maybe.withDefault("Not a valid month")
const value = default((parseMonth("12"))) // "December"
const none = default((parseMonth("1typo2"))) // "Not a valid month"

Maybe allows you to compose functions that may fail or deal with data
that have optional values while still keeping a declarative functional style