nifty-types

Nifty Types inspired by Scala

introduces Option<A> and Either<A, B> for Javascript Ninjas.

npm install nifty-types

Option<A>

Represents optional values. Instances of Option are either an instance of Some or the object None.

The idea is to get rid of null and undefined and, thus, eliminate null pointer exceptions, reduce branching (if statement) and produce better code.

Exported	Description
Option<A>	the base abstract class that implements utility functions for instances of classes Some and None. It's primarily used to indicate that a type has an optional value.
Some<A>	one of the possible implementations of Option<A> that wraps a value. The incapsulated value is available by the get() method.
None<A>	another implementation of Option<A> indicating absence of value.
some<A>(x: A): Option<A>	a helper function instantiating objects of type Some or None based on a provided value.
none: Option<A>	a single instance of None<A>.

Creating an option

Usually, you can simply create an Option<A> for a present value by directly calling some() function:

let greeting: Option<string> = some('Hello world');

Or, if you know that the value is absent, you simply assign or return the None object:

let greeting: Option<string> = none;

The function some() is smart and returns none if a given parameter is null or undefined:

let absentGreeting: Option<string> = some(null) // absentGreeting will be none

Getting an option value

There are several ways of getting an Option value:

a) the easiest but NOT recommended way.

let str: String = greeting.get();
// if greeting is None, it will throw RangeError('none.get()').

b) it's recommended to call getOrElse() function.

let str: String = greeting.getOrElse(''); 
// if greeting is None, it will return an empty string.

c) class Option implements Symbol.Iterable, so there is a cute funny way for getting an option value:

let [str]: String = [...greeting]; 
// a result of this spread operator will be either an array of one element if Option is Some 
// or an empty array if it's None.

d) and the last but not least approach should make full-metal Javascript Ninjas cry in happiness:

for(let str: String of greeting) {
    // this will be executed only is greeting has Some value.
}

Working with options

The most idiomatic way to use an Option instance is to treat it as a collection or monad and use map, flatMap, filter, or foreach.

Let's consider an example where for a given country code we need to find the country name or print "N/A" if it's not found.

import { Option, none, some} from './Option';

type Country = { name: string, code: number };
let countries: Country[] = [{ name: 'United States', code: 1 }, { name: 'United Kingdom', code: 44 }];

function getNameByCode(code: number): string {
    // find a country by code
    const country = countries.find(c => c.code === code);

    // if the country is not null return the name or N/A
    return some(country).map(_ => _.name).getOrElse('N/A');
    //     ^^^           ^^^ select name   ^^^ get a value if exists
    //     create Option<Country>              otherwise use 'N/A'
}

More examples could be found here.

Either<A, B>

Represents a value of one of two possible types (a disjoint union). An instance of Either is an instance of either Left or Right. Convention dictates that Left is used for failure and Right is used for success.

Exported	Description
Either<A, B>	the base abstract class that implements utility functions for instances of classes Left and Right.
Right<A, B>	a right "good" part.
Left<A, B>	a left "fail over" part, e.g. Error.
right<A, B>(x: B): Either<A, B>	a helper function instantiating Right objects.
left<A, B>(x: B): Either<A, B>	a helper function instantiating Left objects.

Generally Either can be considered as an alternative to Option where instead of None a useful information could be encapsulated into Left. It turns out that Either is a power-full type for validations since it can return either a successfully parsed value, or a validation error.

Creating an either

Usually, you can simply create an Either<A, B> by directly calling right() or left() helper functions:

let eitherNumber: Either<string, number> = right(42); // equivalent to new Right(42)

or

let eitherNumber: Either<string, number> = left('Not a number'); // equivalent to new Left('Not a number')

Extracting values from Either

Either is right-biased, which means that Right is assumed to be the default case to operate on. If it is Left, operations like map and flatMap return the Left value unchanged:

right<number, string>(42).map(_ => _ * 2).getOrElse(-1); // 84
//                        ^^^             ^^^ will get 84 from the right 
//                        map will be applied to the right part 

or

left<number, string>('').map(_ => _ * 2).getOrElse(-1);  // -1
//                       ^^^             ^^^ will print -1 because there's no any right
//                       won't be applied since it's left

Either can be swapped in order to work with useful info from Left, e.g.:

left<number, string>('useful info').swap().getOrElse('');  // useful info
//                                  /^^^   ^^^ here 'useful info' is "right" 
//             swap Left and Right /

For hardcore Javascript Ninjas Either implements Symbol.Iterable, so enjoy:

let eitherNumber = right<number, string>(42).map(_ => _ * 2);

let [n] = [...eitherNumber]; // n === 42

for(let num of eitherNumber) {
    // for ensures that the num will be 42
}

More examples could be found here.

License

MIT