catch-safe

Inspired by and adapted from the example code in this article by Kent C. Dodds

Since TypeScript 4.4, catch clause variables default to the unknown type. This library provides a zero-dependency utility function which allows you to extract the error message in a type-safe manner.

When the catch clause variable is of type Error, the getErrorMessage function returns the error message. Otherwise, it returns an empty error object.

Installation

Install the package in your project:

# NPM
npm install catch-safe

# Yarn
yarn add catch-safe

# PNPM
pnpm add catch-safe

Usage

Import the getErrorMessage function from the catch-safe module and use it to get the error message (if it exists) from a catch block variable :

import { getErrorMessage } from 'catch-safe'

async function someAsyncFunction() {
  try {
    await runAsyncTask()
  } catch (err) {
    throw new Error(getErrorMessage(err))
  }
}