Printer

Prints Babel AST to readable JavaScript.

☝️ Similar to Recast, but twice faster, also simpler and easier in maintenance, since it supports only Babel.
☝️ As opinionated as Prettier, but has more user-friendly output and works directly with AST.
☝️ Like ESLint but works directly with Babel AST.
☝️ Easily extandable with help of Overrides.

Supports:

✅ ES2023;
✅ JSX;
✅ TypeScript;

Install

npm i @putout/printer

🐊 Support of Printer

Printer has first class support from 🐊Putout with help of @putout/plugin-printer. So install:

npm i @putout/plugin-printer -aD

And update .putout.json:

{
    "printer": "putout",
    "plugins": [
        "printer"
    ]
}

To benefit from it.

API

const {print} = require('@putout/printer');
const {parse} = require('@babel/parser');
const ast = parse('const a = (b, c) => {const d = 5; return a;}');

print(ast);
// returns
`
const a = (b, c) => {
    const d = 5;
    return a;
};
`;

Overrides

When you need to extend syntax of @putout/printer just pass a function which receives:

path, Babel Path
print, a function to output result of printing into token array;

When path contains to dashes __ and name, it is the same as: print(path.get('right')), and this is actually traverse(path.get('right')) shortened to simplify read and process.

Here is how you can override AssignmentPattern:

const ast = parse('const {a = 5} = b');

print(ast, {
    format: {
        indent: '    ',
        newline: '\n',
        space: ' ',
        comments: true,
        splitter: '\n',
    },
    visitors: {
        AssignmentPattern(path, {print}) {
            print('/* [hello world] */= ');
            print('__right');
        },
    },
});

// returns
'const {a/* [hello world] */= 5} = b;\n';

`print`

Used in previous example print can be used for a couple purposes:

to print string;
to print node when object passed;
to print node when string started with __;

print(ast, {
    visitors: {
        AssignmentPattern(path, {print, maybe}) {
            maybe.print.newline(path.parentPath.isCallExpression());
            print('/* [hello world] */= ');
            print('__right');
        },
    },
});

`maybe`

When you need some condition use maybe. For example, to add newline only when parent node is CallExpression you can use maybe.print.newline(condition):

print(ast, {
    visitors: {
        AssignmentPattern(path, {print, maybe}) {
            maybe.print.newline(path.parentPath.isCallExpression());
            print(' /* [hello world] */= ');
            print('__right');
        },
    },
});

`write`

When are you going to output string you can use low-level function write:

print(ast, {
    visitors: {
        BlockStatement(path, {write}) {
            write('hello');
        },
    },
});

`indent`

When you need to add indentation use indent, for example when you output body, you need to increment indentation, and then decrement it back:

print(ast, {
    visitors: {
        BlockStatement(path, {write, indent}) {
            write('{');
            indent.inc();
            indent();
            write('some;');
            indent.dec();
            write('{');
        },
    },
});

`traverse`

When are you needing to traverse node, you can use traverse:

print(ast, {
    visitors: {
        AssignmentExpression(path, {traverse}) {
            traverse(path.get('left'));
        },
    },
});

This is the same as print('__left') but more low-level, and supports only objects.

Speed Comparison

About speed, for file speed.js:

const putout = require('putout');
const {readFileSync} = require('fs');
const parser = require('@babel/parser');

const code = readFileSync('./lib/tokenize/tokenize.js', 'utf8');
const ast = parser.parse(code);

speed('recast');
speed('putout');

function speed(printer) {
    console.time(printer);
    
    for (let i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
        putout(code, {
            printer,
            plugins: [
                'remove-unused-variables',
            ],
        });
    }
    
    console.timeEnd(printer);
}

With contents of tokenize.js, we have:

License

MIT