betterr

A better way to handle errors

Advantages

• File structure remains flat, unlike with nested try...catch blocks
• Variables are declared with const, unlike with non-nested try...catch blocks
• Both data and errors are available at the top level, unlike with try..catch or promises
• Work with errors that are always instances of Error with full type safety, unlike with try...catch or promises
• Work with data that is non-nullable, once an early return occurs in the case of an error

Installation

$ npm install betterr

Usage

async function main() {
  const { data: user, err } = await betterr(() => getLoggedUser());
  //            ^?    ^? user: User | null, err: Error | null

  if (err) {
    // ^? err: Error
    return;
  }

  return user;
  //     ^? user: User
}

• betterr can be used with both asynchronous and synchronous callbacks
• betterrSync can only be used with synchronous callbacks, but avoids wrapping the data in a promise, so await is not necessary

TypeScript

Both betterr and betterrSync are generic, so the type of data can be provided

const { data, err } = betterrSync<User>(() => {
  //    ^? data: User
  userId: '1';
});