@selfage/ref

Install

npm install @selfage/ref

Overview

Written in TypeScript and compiled to ES6 with inline source map & source. See @selfage/tsconfig for full compiler options. Provides a simple wrapper for any values, which can then be passed around by reference. The primary motivation is to pass wrappers to functions as output arguments, just like using C++ output pointer arguments.

Output argument

See Ref's definition.

import { Ref } from '@selfage/ref';

function add(a: number, b: number, res: Ref<number>): void {
  res.val = a + b;
}

let outputArg = new Ref<number>();
add(1, 2, outputArg);
console.log(outputArg.val);
// Prints 3.

Assign output argument while return value

See assign()'s definition.

import { Ref, assign } from '@selfage/ref';

function add(a: number, b: number, res: Ref<number>): number {
  let value = a + b;
  return assign(res, value);
}

let res = new Ref<number>();
let ret = add(1, 2, res);
// res.val === 3
// ret == 3

Intercept output

Another way to assign() is to intercept output while keep returning it.

import { Ref, assign } from '@selfage/ref';

function add(a: number, b: number): number {
  return a + b;
}

let res1 = new Ref<number>();
let res2 = new Ref<number>();
let res3 = add(assign(res1, add(1,2)), assign(res2, add(3,4)));
// res1.val === 3
// res2.val === 7
// res3 === 10

Without Ref and assign(), the equivalent looks like the following.

function add(a: number, b: number): number {
  return a + b;
}

let res1 = add(1,2);
let res2 = add(3,4;
let res3 = add(res1, res2);
// res1 === 3
// res2 === 7
// res3 === 10

Return multiple values?

TypeScript/JavaScript can easily return an object as a way to return multiple values. Therefore this package isn't designed for that purpose.