go-go-try

Tries to execute a sync/async function, returns a Golang style result.

Why

• Supports sync/async functions.
• Allows you to capture the thrown error.
• Written in TypeScript. The types are written in a way that reduce developer errors.
• Inspired by Golang error catching.
• Zero dependencies.

Why not just try/catch?

• In a lot of cases, try/catch is still the better option.
• Nested try/catch statements are hard to process mentally. They also indent the code and make it hard to read. A single try/catch does the same but to a lesser degree.
• If you prefer const, try/catch statements get in the way because you need to use let if you need the variable outside of the try/catch scope:

  let todos
  try {
      todos = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('todos'))
  } catch {}
  return todos.filter((todo) => todo.done)

• It takes more space. It's slower to type.

Install

npm install go-go-try

Basic Usage

import { goTry, goTryRaw } from 'go-go-try'

// tries to parse todos, returns empty array if it fails
const [_, value = []] = goTry(() => JSON.parse(todos))

// fetch todos, on error, fallback to empty array
const [_, todos = []] = await goTry(fetchTodos())

// fetch todos, fallback to empty array, send error to your error tracking service
const [err, todos = []] = await goTry(fetchTodos()) // err is string | undefined
if (err) sendToErrorTrackingService(err)

// goTry extracts the error message from the error object, if you want the raw error object, use goTryRaw
const [err, value] = goTryRaw(() => JSON.parse('{/}')) // err is Error | undefined, value is T | undefined

// fetch todos, fallback to empty array, send error to your error tracking service
const [err, todos = []] = await goTryRaw(fetchTodos()) // err is Error | undefined
if (err) sendToErrorTrackingService(err)

Advanced Usage

Sequential Async Operations

Chain multiple async operations with clean error handling:

import { goTry } from 'go-go-try'

async function fetchUserData(userId: string) {
  // Fetch user
  const [fetchErr, user] = await goTry(fetch(`/api/users/${userId}`))
  if (fetchErr) return [fetchErr, undefined] as const
  
  // Parse response
  const [parseErr, data] = await goTry(user!.json())
  if (parseErr) return [parseErr, undefined] as const
  
  // Validate/transform
  const [validateErr, validated] = goTry(() => validateUser(data!))
  if (validateErr) return [validateErr, undefined] as const
  
  return [undefined, validated] as const
}

const [err, user] = await fetchUserData('123')
if (err) {
  console.error('Failed to fetch user:', err)
} else {
  console.log('User:', user)
}

Parallel Execution with goTryAll

Execute multiple promises in parallel:

import { goTryAll } from 'go-go-try'

const [errors, results] = await goTryAll([
  fetchUser(userId),
  fetchPosts(userId),
  fetchComments(userId)
])

// errors is [string | undefined, string | undefined, string | undefined]
// results is [User | undefined, Posts | undefined, Comments | undefined]

const [user, posts, comments] = results

Safe Unwrapping with goTryOr

Like goTry, but returns a default value on failure instead of undefined:

Note: For static default values, you can use destructuring instead:

// These are equivalent for static defaults:
const [err, config = {port: 3000}] = goTry(() => JSON.parse(configString))
const [err, config] = goTryOr(() => JSON.parse(configString), {port: 3000})

Use goTryOr when you need lazy evaluation (the default is only computed on failure):

import { goTryOr } from 'go-go-try'

// ✅ Use goTryOr with a function for lazy evaluation - default only computed on failure
const [err, user] = await goTryOr(fetchUser(id), () => ({
  id: 'anonymous',
  name: 'Guest',
  createdAt: new Date()  // This won't run on success
}))

// ❌ Avoid: wasteful - createDefault() runs even on success
const [err, config = createDefault()] = goTry(loadConfig())

// ✅ Better: lazy - createDefault() only runs on failure
const [err, config] = goTryOr(loadConfig(), () => createDefault())

Express/Fastify Error Handling

Use in API route handlers:

import { goTry } from 'go-go-try'
import express from 'express'

const app = express()

app.post('/users', async (req, res) => {
  const [err, user] = await goTry(createUser(req.body))
  
  if (err) {
    return res.status(400).json({ error: err })
  }
  
  res.json(user)
})

// Batch endpoint
app.post('/batch', async (req, res) => {
  const [errors, results] = await goTryAll(
    req.body.operations.map(op => processOperation(op))
  )
  
  const hasErrors = errors.some(e => e !== undefined)
  
  res.status(hasErrors ? 207 : 200).json({
    results,
    errors: errors.filter(Boolean)
  })
})

Type Guards

Narrow types using isSuccess and isFailure:

import { goTry, isSuccess, isFailure } from 'go-go-try'

const result = goTry(() => riskyOperation())

if (isSuccess(result)) {
  // result[1] is typed as T (not T | undefined)
  console.log(result[1])
} else if (isFailure(result)) {
  // result[0] is typed as E (not E | undefined)
  console.error(result[0])
}

You can also narrow types by destructuring and checking the error:

const [err, value] = goTry(() => riskyOperation())

if (err === undefined) {
  // value is typed as T (not T | undefined)
  console.log(value)
} else {
  // err is typed as string (not string | undefined)
  console.error(err)
  // value is typed as undefined in this branch
}

Helper Functions

Build custom utilities on top of the primitives:

import { goTry, success, failure, type Result } from 'go-go-try'

// Custom validation helper
function validateEmail(email: string): Result<string, string> {
  if (!email.includes('@')) {
    return failure('Invalid email format')
  }
  return success(email.toLowerCase().trim())
}

// Usage
const [err, normalizedEmail] = validateEmail('[email protected]')
if (err) {
  console.error(err) // Doesn't trigger
} else {
  console.log(normalizedEmail) // '[email protected]'
}

API

goTry<T>(value)

Executes a function, promise, or value and returns a Result type with error message as string.

function goTry<T>(value: T | Promise<T> | (() => T | Promise<T>)): Result<string, T> | Promise<Result<string, T>>

goTryRaw<T, E>(value)

Like goTry but returns the raw Error object instead of just the message.

function goTryRaw<T, E = Error>(value: T | Promise<T> | (() => T | Promise<T>)): Result<E, T> | Promise<Result<E, T>>

goTryAll<T>(items, options?)

Executes multiple promises or factory functions with optional concurrency limit. Returns a tuple of [errors, results] with fixed tuple types preserving input order.

interface GoTryAllOptions {
  concurrency?: number  // 0 = unlimited (default), 1 = sequential, N = max concurrent
}

function goTryAll<T extends readonly unknown[]>(
  items: { [K in keyof T]: Promise<T[K]> | (() => Promise<T[K]>) },
  options?: GoTryAllOptions
): Promise<[{ [K in keyof T]: string | undefined }, { [K in keyof T]: T[K] | undefined }]>

Promise mode (pass promises directly):

// Run all in parallel (default):
const [errors, results] = await goTryAll([
  fetchUser(1),      // Promise<User>
  fetchUser(2),      // Promise<User>
  fetchUser(3),      // Promise<User>
])
// errors: [string | undefined, string | undefined, string | undefined]
// results: [User | undefined, User | undefined, User | undefined]

Factory mode (pass functions that return promises):

// True lazy execution - factories only called when a slot is available
const [errors, results] = await goTryAll([
  () => fetchUser(1),  // Only called when concurrency slot available
  () => fetchUser(2),  // Only called when concurrency slot available
  () => fetchUser(3),  // Only called when concurrency slot available
  () => fetchUser(4),  // Only called when concurrency slot available
], { concurrency: 2 })

// Use factory mode when you need to:
// - Rate limit API calls (don't start HTTP requests until allowed)
// - Control database connection limits
// - Limit expensive computation resources

goTryAllRaw<T>(items, options?)

Like goTryAll, but returns raw Error objects instead of error messages.

function goTryAllRaw<T extends readonly unknown[]>(
  items: { [K in keyof T]: Promise<T[K]> | (() => Promise<T[K]>) },
  options?: GoTryAllOptions
): Promise<[{ [K in keyof T]: Error | undefined }, { [K in keyof T]: T[K] | undefined }]>

goTryOr<T>(value, defaultValue)

Like goTry, but returns a default value on failure instead of undefined. The default can be either a static value or a function (for lazy evaluation).

function goTryOr<T>(value: T | Promise<T> | (() => T | Promise<T>), defaultValue: T | (() => T)): Result<string, T> | Promise<Result<string, T>>

isSuccess(result) / isFailure(result)

Type guards to check result status.

function isSuccess<E, T>(result: Result<E, T>): result is Success<T>
function isFailure<E, T>(result: Result<E, T>): result is Failure<E>

success(value) / failure(error)

Helper functions to create Result tuples.

function success<T>(value: T): Success<T>
function failure<E>(error: E): Failure<E>

Types

type Success<T> = readonly [undefined, T]
type Failure<E> = readonly [E, undefined]
type Result<E, T> = Success<T> | Failure<E>

License

MIT