Fates 🔮 - Tame Your TypeScript Destiny!

Hey there, fellow coder! 👋 Tired of wrestling with unpredictable outcomes in your TypeScript projects? Say hello to Fates, your new best friend in the battle against uncertainty!

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Key Features
• Installation
• Quick Start
• Core Concepts
  • The Result Type
  • Ok and Err
  • Essential Methods
• Advanced Usage
  • Async Operations
  • Chaining and Composition
  • Error Recovery and Transformation
  • Validation Pipelines
  • Parsing and Type Conversion
  • Combining Results
  • Processing Pipelines
  • Retry Mechanisms
• API Reference
• Best Practices and Patterns
• Performance Considerations
• Migrating from Try-Catch
• Comparison with Other Libraries
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

Fates is a powerful TypeScript library that revolutionizes error handling and data flow management. By introducing a Result type inspired by functional programming paradigms, Fates enables developers to write more predictable, maintainable, and expressive code.

Key Features

• 🛡️ Type-Safe Error Handling: Leverage TypeScript's type system for robust error management.
• 🔗 Elegant Function Composition: Chain operations seamlessly, even with potential failures.
• 🚀 First-Class Async Support: Handle asynchronous operations with grace and predictability.
• 🧰 Comprehensive Utility Set: A rich collection of tools for manipulating and transforming Results.
• 🏗️ Flexible Validation Framework: Construct complex, reusable validation pipelines with ease.
• 🔄 Built-in Retry Mechanism: Handle transient failures in distributed systems effortlessly.
• 🧩 Powerful Combinators: Combine and manipulate multiple Results with intuitive operators.

Installation

Choose your preferred package manager:

npm install fates
# or
yarn add fates
# or
pnpm add fates

Quick Start

Let's dive into a simple example to see Fates in action:

import { ok, err, Result } from 'fates';

function divideAndFormatCurrency(a: number, b: number): Result<string, string> {
  if (b === 0) return err("Division by zero");
  const result = a / b;
  return ok(`$${result.toFixed(2)}`);
}

const result = divideAndFormatCurrency(100, 3);

result.match({
  ok: (value) => console.log(`Formatted result: ${value}`),
  err: (error) => console.log(`Error occurred: ${error}`),
});
// Output: Formatted result: $33.33

Core Concepts

The Result Type

The foundation of Fates is the Result type:

type Result<T, E = Error> = Ok<T> | Err<E>;

It encapsulates either a success value (Ok<T>) or a failure value (Err<E>).

The Option Type

Fates also provides an Option type for representing values that may or may not exist:

type Option<T> = Ok<T> | Err<null>;

The Option type is useful for handling nullable values without resorting to null checks:

import { fromNullable, Option } from 'fates';

function findUser(id: number): Option<User> {
  const user = database.getUser(id);
  return fromNullable(user);
}

const userOption = findUser(1);
userOption.match({
  ok: (user) => console.log(`Found user: ${user.name}`),
  err: () => console.log("User not found"),
});

Ok and Err

Create success and failure results:

import { ok, err } from 'fates';

const success = ok(42);
const failure = err("Something went wrong");

console.log(success.isOk());  // true
console.log(failure.isErr()); // true

Essential Methods

Both Ok and Err provide powerful methods for working with results:

match

Pattern match on the result:

result.match({
  ok: (value) => console.log(`Success: ${value}`),
  err: (error) => console.log(`Error: ${error}`),
});

map and flatMap

Transform success values:

const doubled = ok(21).map(x => x * 2);  // Ok(42)
const maybeSquared = doubled.flatMap(x => x > 50 ? err("Too large") : ok(x * x));  // Err("Too large")

mapErr

Transform error values:

const newError = err("error").mapErr(e => new Error(e));  // Err(Error("error"))

unwrap and unwrapOr

Extract values (with caution):

const value = ok(42).unwrap();  // 42
const fallback = err("error").unwrapOr(0);  // 0

safeUnwrap

Extract raw values regardless of error

const value ok(41).safeUnwrap(); // 41
const fallback = err("error").safeUnwrap(); // "error"
const badfallback = err("some error").unwrap(); // Throws "some error"

Advanced Usage

Async Operations

Fates seamlessly integrates with asynchronous code:

import { fromPromise, AsyncResult } from 'fates';

async function fetchUserData(id: number): AsyncResult<User, Error> {
  return fromPromise(fetch(`https://api.example.com/users/${id}`).then(res => res.json()));
}

const result = await fetchUserData(1);
result.match({
  ok: (user) => console.log(`Welcome, ${user.name}!`),
  err: (error) => console.log(`Fetch failed: ${error.message}`),
});

Chaining and Composition

Elegantly chain operations that might fail:

import { chain } from 'fates';

const getUser = (id: number): Result<User, Error> => { /* ... */ };
const getUserPosts = (user: User): Result<Post[], Error> => { /* ... */ };
const formatPosts = (posts: Post[]): Result<string, Error> => { /* ... */ };

const formattedUserPosts = getUser(1)
  .flatMap(chain(getUserPosts))
  .flatMap(chain(formatPosts));

formattedUserPosts.match({
  ok: (formatted) => console.log(formatted),
  err: (error) => console.error(`Error: ${error.message}`),
});

Error Recovery and Transformation

Gracefully handle and transform errors:

import { recover, mapError } from 'fates';

const result = getUserData(1)
  .mapErr(error => `Failed to fetch user: ${error.message}`)
  .recover(error => ({ id: 0, name: 'Guest' }));

console.log(result.unwrap());  // Either user data or the guest user

Validation Pipelines

Build complex, reusable validation logic:

import { validate, validateAll } from 'fates';

const validateAge = (age: number) => validate(age, a => a >= 18, "Must be an adult");
const validateEmail = (email: string) => validate(email, e => /^[^\s@]+@[^\s@]+\.[^\s@]+$/.test(e), "Invalid email");

const validateUser = (user: { age: number, email: string }) =>
  validateAll(user, [
    u => validateAge(u.age),
    u => validateEmail(u.email)
  ]);

const result = validateUser({ age: 25, email: "[email protected]" });
result.match({
  ok: (user) => console.log(`Valid user: ${JSON.stringify(user)}`),
  err: (error) => console.error(`Validation failed: ${error}`),
});

Parsing and Type Conversion

Safely parse and convert data:

import { parseNumber, parseDate, parseJSON } from 'fates';

const num = parseNumber("42").unwrapOr(0);
const date = parseDate("2023-04-01").unwrapOr(new Date());
const config = parseJSON<Config>(jsonString).unwrapOr(defaultConfig);

Combining Results

Work with multiple results simultaneously:

import { all, any, sequenceObject } from 'fates';

const results = all([fetchUser(1), fetchPosts(1), fetchComments(1)]);
results.match({
  ok: ([user, posts, comments]) => console.log(`Fetched data for ${user.name}`),
  err: (error) => console.error(`One or more fetches failed: ${error}`),
});

const firstSuccess = any([unreliableServiceA(), unreliableServiceB(), unreliableServiceC()]);
firstSuccess.match({
  ok: (result) => console.log(`Got a successful result: ${result}`),
  err: (errors) => console.error(`All services failed: ${errors.join(', ')}`),
});

const userResult = sequenceObject({
  name: validateName(formData.name),
  email: validateEmail(formData.email),
  age: validateAge(formData.age)
});

Processing Pipelines

Create robust data processing flows:

import { pipeline } from 'fates';

const processOrder = pipeline(
  validateOrder,
  calculateTotalWithTax,
  applyDiscount,
  saveToDatabase,
  sendConfirmationEmail
);

const result = await processOrder(orderData);
result.match({
  ok: (confirmationId) => console.log(`Order processed, confirmation: ${confirmationId}`),
  err: (error) => console.error(`Order processing failed: ${error}`),
});

Retry Mechanisms

Handle transient failures in distributed systems:

import { retry } from 'fates';

const fetchWithRetry = retry(
  () => fetchFromUnreliableService(),
  3,  // max attempts
  1000  // delay between attempts (ms)
);

const result = await fetchWithRetry();
result.match({
  ok: (data) => console.log(`Fetched successfully: ${data}`),
  err: (error) => console.error(`All attempts failed: ${error}`),
});

API Reference

For a complete API reference, please visit our API Documentation.

Best Practices and Patterns

• Prefer flatMap over map when chaining operations that return Result.
• Use tap for side effects without changing the Result value.
• Leverage validateAll for complex object validations.
• Use AsyncResult consistently for asynchronous operations.
• Prefer recover over unwrapOr for more flexible error handling.

Performance Considerations

Fates is designed with performance in mind, but here are some tips to optimize your use:

• Avoid unnecessary map and flatMap chains when a single operation would suffice.
• Use AsyncResult directly instead of wrapping Promise<Result<T, E>>.
• Leverage all and any for parallel operations instead of sequential flatMap chains.

Migrating from Try-Catch

Fates offers a more expressive and type-safe alternative to traditional try-catch blocks. Here's a quick comparison:

// Traditional try-catch
try {
  const result = riskyOperation();
  console.log(result);
} catch (error) {
  console.error(error);
}

// With Fates
riskyOperation()
  .match({
    ok: (result) => console.log(result),
    err: (error) => console.error(error),
  });

Comparison with Other Libraries

Fates draws inspiration from functional programming concepts and libraries like Rust's Result type. However, it's tailored specifically for TypeScript, offering seamless integration with async/await and providing a rich set of utilities designed for real-world TypeScript applications.

Contributing

We welcome contributions to Fates! Whether you're fixing bugs, adding features, or improving documentation, your help is appreciated. Please check our Contribution Guidelines for more information.

License

Fates is licensed under the ISC License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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Embrace the power of Fates and elevate your TypeScript projects to new heights of reliability and expressiveness!