In this short article, we are going to see how we can handle error in JavaScript in Golang style.

I am assuming, you have some experience with JavaScript and you are aware of the issues with error handling like throwing an exception to the parent method from try-catch block or chaining multiple then-blocks and implementing logic inside it. These things can easily mess up with the code making it difficult to read.

Golang avoids these type of problems by handling errors/exceptions atomically.

Error handling in Golang

result, err := methodCall()
if err != nil {
  // handle error
}
// do something with the result

We can use a similar pattern in JavaScript with the help of a try-catch block like this.

const getData = async () => {
  try {
    const result = await methodCall();
    return [result, null];
  } catch(error) {
    return [null, error];
  }
}

If any error occurs, we are returning the error in the second position of the array and the result as null in the first position.

If there is no error, we are returning the result in the first position and error as null in the second position.

Now we can call the getData method then handle the result and error like this.

const [result, error] = await getData();
if (error !== null) {
  // handle the error
}
// do something with the result

This pattern of error handling makes it very easy to read and understand the code.

Let me know what do you think about this pattern.

Originally published on blog.bibekkakati.me

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