About

• lambda-options is a declarative argument parser:
• • Use callbacks with typed arguments to dictate parsing.
• lambda-options is strongly typed:
• • Misuse of callbacks leads to compiler errors:
• lambda-options is extensible:
• • You can add your own typed parsers.

Why

Typescript was lacking a good CLI argument parser. All the parsers I found were either weakly typed (usually from a vanilla JS project), didn't allow custom parsers, or proved difficult to use.

lambda-options was designed to solve all these problems.

How

With lambda-options, you register fully-typed parse callbacks for pattern matching keywords and their arguments.

Example:

import { Options } from "lambda-options";

const options = Options.createDefault();

// Matches ["--take", "5", "helloworld"]
options.addOption(
    "--take",           // Name of the keyword
    ["unsigned", "N"],  // [Type of 1st keyword argument, Argument help description name]
    ["string", "STR"],  // [Type of 2nd keyword argument, Argument help description name]
    "Takes the first N characters of STR.", // Help description
    (n: number,         // First argument. Strongly typed from "unsigned"
     s: string)         // Second argument. Strongly typed from "string"
     => {
        // Parse match action
        console.log(s.substr(0, n));
    }
);

The options structure that the option is registered to understands the types involved and will pattern match accordingly. For example, the above snippet will not match ["--take", "-1", "helloworld"].

Also note that if the callback had a different type for n: number, you will get a compiler error. Likewise for the s: string type.

A comprehensive list of built-in type parsers are listed later in this document.

If the built-in parsers are not sufficient for your needs, you can register your own parsers. These too are typesafe.

Quickstart Example

import { Options, Exception } from "lambda-options";

const options = Options.createDefault();

options.addOption(
    ["--help", "-h"],
    "Display this help message.",
    () => {
        console.log(options.getHelpDescription());
    }
);
options.addOption(
    "--take",
    ["unsigned", "NUM"],
    ["string", "STR"],
    "Takes the first NUM characters of STR.",
    (n: number, s: string) => {
        console.log(s.substr(0, n));
    }
);
options.addOption(
    "--sum",
    ["number", "NUM"],
    ["number[]", "NUMS"],
    "Takes the sum of 1 or more numbers.",
    (x: number, xs: number[]) => {
        console.log(xs.reduce((y, z) => y + z, x));
    }
);

declare const process: { argv: string[] };
const args = process.argv.slice(2);

const parseContext = options.createParseContext(args);

try {
    parseContext.run();
}
catch (e) {
    if (e instanceof Exception) {
        console.log(e.message);
        console.log(options.getHelpDescription());
    }
    else {
        console.log(e);
    }
}

Registering custom type parsers.

With Options.prototype.registerParser(typeName, parser) you can make lambda-options aware of your own custom types.

Example A:

import { Options, NoParse, parseNumber } from "lambda-options";

type Point = { x: number, y: number };

function pointParser(
    startIndex: number,
    args: string[])
    : [Point | NoParse, number]
{
    const [result1, consumed1] = parseNumber(startIndex, args);
    if (result1 === NoParse) {
        return [NoParse, consumed1];
    }
    startIndex += consumed1;

    const [result2, consumed2] = parseNumber(startIndex, args);
    if (result2 === NoParse) {
        return [NoParse, consumed1 + cosumed2];
    }

    const point = { x: result1, y: result2 };
    return [point, consumed1 + cosumed2];
}

const options = Options.createDefault()
    .registerParser("Point", pointParser);

There are serveral helper functions available too.

Example B:

import {
    Options,
    NoParse,
    parseNumber,
    createFixedArrayParser,
} from "lambda-options";

type Point = { x: number, y: number };

const parseNumber2 = createFixedArrayParser("2", parseNumber);

function pointParser(
    startIndex: number,
    args: string[])
    : [Point | NoParse, number]
{
    const [result, consumed] = parseNumber2(startIndex, args);
    if (result === NoParse) {
        return [NoParse, consumed];
    }
    const point = { x: result[0], y: result[1] };
    return [point, consumed];
}

const options = Options.createDefault()
    .registerParser("Point", pointParser);

You can use Options.prototype.registerParsers to easily get T? and T[] semantics as well.

Example C:

import {
    Options,
    NoParse,
    parseNumber,
    createFixedArrayParser,
} from "lambda-options";

type Point = { x: number, y: number };

const parseNumber2 = createFixedArrayParser("2", parseNumber);

function pointParser(
    startIndex: number,
    args: string[])
    : [Point | NoParse, number]
{
    const [result, consumed] = parseNumber2(startIndex, args);
    if (result === NoParse) {
        return [NoParse, consumed];
    }
    const point = { x: result[0], y: result[1] };
    return [point, consumed];
}

const options = Options.createDefault()
    .registerParsers("Point", "Point?", "Point[]", pointParser);

Built-in parse types

• "boolean" → boolean
• "boolean?" → boolean | undefined
• "boolean[]" → boolean[]
• "string" → string
• "string?" → string | undefined
• "string[]" → string[]
• "number" → number
• "number?" → number | undefined
• "number[]" → number[]
• "integer" → number
• "integer?" → number | undefined
• "integer[]" → number[]
• "unsigned" → number
• "unsigned?" → number | undefined
• "unsigned[]" → number[]
• "Int8" → number
• "Int8?" → number | undefined
• "Int8[]" → number[]
• "Int16" → number
• "Int16?" → number | undefined
• "Int16[]" → number[]
• "Int32" → number
• "Int32?" → number | undefined
• "Int32[]" → number[]
• "Uint8" → number
• "Uint8?" → number | undefined
• "Uint8[]" → number[]
• "Uint16" → number
• "Uint16?" → number | undefined
• "Uint16[]" → number[]
• "Uint32" → number
• "Uint32?" → number | undefined
• "Uint32[]" → number[]
• "Int8Array" → Int8Array
• "Int16Array" → Int16Array
• "Int32Array" → Int32Array
• "Uint8Array" → Uint8Array
• "Uint16Array" → Uint16Array
• "Uint32Array" → Uint32Array