format-error

Lightweight library for modern Error formatting

format-error is a TypeScript library designed to easily convert Error objects to string; in particular, its formatError() function provides:

• support for the cause property introduced by ES 2022

• customizable behaviour via an optional parts parameter

• backward compatibility with non-Error objects

Installation

npm install @giancosta86/format-error

or

yarn add @giancosta86/format-error

The public API entirely resides in the root package index, so you shouldn't reference specific modules.

Usage

The library provides the following utility functions:

• formatError(error[,parts]): given an error value, returns a string including just the requested error parts (see below). By default, only the class and the message are included.

  The error argument can be anything - although non-Error objects will be converted without considering the parts argument. More precisely:

  • If the object includes a message property, its string conversion will be returned

  • Otherwise, the value itself is converted to string

• toError(error): when receiving an Error, the function just returns the argument itself; otherwise, it creates an error whose message is the stringified value

Error parts

ErrorParts is a flag enum - describing the different parts of an Error that should appear in the result:

• Class: the class

• Message: the message

• CauseChain: the chain of cause errors - if available - displaying the related class and message parts according to the current format

• Stack: the stack trace

You can request multiple error parts by combining the enum values - for example:

formatError(
  new URIError("Yogi the Bear"),
  ErrorParts.Class | ErrorParts.CauseChain
);

Additionally, the shortcut combination values Core, Main and All are available.

Please, note: you must specify at least one between Class and Message; otherwise, the function will throw an error