type-check 
type-check is a library which allows you to check the
types of JavaScript values at runtime with a Haskell like type syntax.
It is great for checking external input, for testing, or even for adding
a bit of safety to your internal code. It is a major component of levn. MIT license. Version 0.4.0.
Check out the demo.
For updates on type-check, follow me on twitter.
npm install type-check
Quick Examples
// Basic types:
var typeCheck = require('type-check').typeCheck;
typeCheck('Number', 1); // true
typeCheck('Number', 'str'); // false
typeCheck('Error', new Error); // true
typeCheck('Undefined', undefined); // true
// Comment
typeCheck('count::Number', 1); // true
// One type OR another type:
typeCheck('Number | String', 2); // true
typeCheck('Number | String', 'str'); // true
// Wildcard, matches all types:
typeCheck('*', 2) // true
// Array, all elements of a single type:
typeCheck('[Number]', [1, 2, 3]); // true
typeCheck('[Number]', [1, 'str', 3]); // false
// Tuples, or fixed length arrays with elements of different types:
typeCheck('(String, Number)', ['str', 2]); // true
typeCheck('(String, Number)', ['str']); // false
typeCheck('(String, Number)', ['str', 2, 5]); // false
// Object properties:
typeCheck('{x: Number, y: Boolean}', {x: 2, y: false}); // true
typeCheck('{x: Number, y: Boolean}', {x: 2}); // false
typeCheck('{x: Number, y: Maybe Boolean}', {x: 2}); // true
typeCheck('{x: Number, y: Boolean}', {x: 2, y: false, z: 3}); // false
typeCheck('{x: Number, y: Boolean, ...}', {x: 2, y: false, z: 3}); // true
// A particular type AND object properties:
typeCheck('RegExp{source: String, ...}', /re/i); // true
typeCheck('RegExp{source: String, ...}', {source: 're'}); // false
// Custom types:
var opt = {customTypes:
{Even: { typeOf: 'Number', validate: function(x) { return x % 2 === 0; }}}};
typeCheck('Even', 2, opt); // true
// Nested:
var type = '{a: (String, [Number], {y: Array, ...}), b: Error{message: String, ...}}'
typeCheck(type, {a: ['hi', [1, 2, 3], {y: [1, 'ms']}], b: new Error('oh no')}); // trueCheck out the type syntax format and guide.
Usage
require('type-check'); returns an object that exposes
four properties. VERSION is the current version of the
library as a string. typeCheck, parseType, and
parsedTypeCheck are functions.
// typeCheck(type, input, options);
typeCheck('Number', 2); // true
// parseType(type);
var parsedType = parseType('Number'); // object
// parsedTypeCheck(parsedType, input, options);
parsedTypeCheck(parsedType, 2); // truetypeCheck(type, input, options)
typeCheck checks a JavaScript value input
against type written in the type
format (and taking account the optional options) and
returns whether the input matches the
type.
arguments
- type -
String- the type written in the type format which to check against - input -
*- any JavaScript value, which is to be checked against the type - options -
Maybe Object- an optional parameter specifying additional options, currently the only available option is specifying custom types
returns
Boolean - whether the input matches the type
example
typeCheck('Number', 2); // trueparseType(type)
parseType parses string type written in the
type format into an object representing the
parsed type.
arguments
- type -
String- the type written in the type format which to parse
returns
Object - an object in the parsed type format
representing the parsed type
example
parseType('Number'); // [{type: 'Number'}]parsedTypeCheck(parsedType, input, options)
parsedTypeCheck checks a JavaScript value
input against parsed type in the parsed type
format (and taking account the optional options) and
returns whether the input matches the type.
Use this in conjunction with parseType if you are going to
use a type more than once.
arguments
- type -
Object- the type in the parsed type format which to check against - input -
*- any JavaScript value, which is to be checked against the type - options -
Maybe Object- an optional parameter specifying additional options, currently the only available option is specifying custom types
returns
Boolean - whether the input matches the type
example
parsedTypeCheck([{type: 'Number'}], 2); // true
var parsedType = parseType('String');
parsedTypeCheck(parsedType, 'str'); // trueSyntax
White space is ignored. The root node is a Types.
- Identifier =
[\$\w]+- a group of any lower or upper case letters, numbers, underscores, or dollar signs - eg.String - Type = an
Identifier, anIdentifierfollowed by aStructure, just aStructure, or a wildcard*- eg.String,Object{x: Number},{x: Number},Array{0: String, 1: Boolean, length: Number},* - Types = optionally a comment (an
Identifierfollowed by a::), optionally the identifierMaybe, one or moreType, separated by|- eg.Number,String | Date,Maybe Number,Maybe Boolean | String - Structure =
Fields, or aTuple, or anArray- eg.{x: Number},(String, Number),[Date] - Fields = a
{, followed one or moreFieldseparated by a comma,(trailing comma,is permitted), optionally an...(always preceded by a comma,), followed by a}- eg.{x: Number, y: String},{k: Function, ...} - Field = an
Identifier, followed by a colon:, followed byTypes- eg.x: Date | String,y: Boolean - Tuple = a
(, followed by one or moreTypesseparated by a comma,(trailing comma,is permitted), followed by a)- eg(Date),(Number, Date) - Array = a
[followed by exactly oneTypesfollowed by a]- eg.[Boolean],[Boolean | Null]
Guide
type-check uses Object.toString to find out
the basic type of a value. Specifically,
A basic type, eg. Number, uses this check. This is much
more versatile than using typeof - for example, with
document, typeof produces
'object' which isn’t that useful, and our technique
produces 'HTMLDocument'.
You may check for multiple types by separating types with a
|. The checker proceeds from left to right, and passes if
the value is any of the types - eg. String | Boolean first
checks if the value is a string, and then if it is a boolean. If it is
none of those, then it returns false.
Adding a Maybe in front of a list of multiple types is
the same as also checking for Null and
Undefined - eg. Maybe String is equivalent to
Undefined | Null | String.
You may add a comment to remind you of what the type is for by
following an identifier with a :: before a type (or
multiple types). The comment is simply thrown out.
The wildcard * matches all types.
There are three types of structures for checking the contents of a value: ‘fields’, ‘tuple’, and ‘array’.
If used by itself, a ‘fields’ structure will pass with any type of
object as long as it is an instance of Object and the
properties pass - this allows for duck typing - eg.
{x: Boolean}.
To check if the properties pass, and the value is of a certain type,
you can specify the type - eg. Error{message: String}.
If you want to make a field optional, you can simply use
Maybe - eg. {x: Boolean, y: Maybe String} will
still pass if y is undefined (or null).
If you don’t care if the value has properties beyond what you have
specified, you can use the ‘etc’ operator ... - eg.
{x: Boolean, ...} will match an object with an
x property that is a boolean, and with zero or more other
properties.
For an array, you must specify one or more types (separated by
|) - it will pass for something of any length as long as
each element passes the types provided - eg. [Number],
[Number | String].
A tuple checks for a fixed number of elements, each of a potentially
different type. Each element is separated by a comma - eg.
(String, Number).
An array and tuple structure check that the value is of type
Array by default, but if another type is specified, they
will check for that instead - eg. Int32Array[Number]. You
can use the wildcard * to search for any type at all.
Check out the type precedence library for type-check.
Options
Options is an object. It is an optional parameter to the
typeCheck and parsedTypeCheck functions. The
only current option is customTypes.
Example:
var options = { customTypes: { Even: { typeOf: 'Number', validate: function(x) { return x % 2 === 0; } } } }; typeCheck('Even', 2, options); // true typeCheck('Even', 3, options); // false
customTypes allows you to set up custom types for
validation. The value of this is an object. The keys of the object are
the types you will be matching. Each value of the object will be an
object having a typeOf property - a string, and
validate property - a function.
The typeOf property is the type the value should be
(optional - if not set only validate will be used), and
validate is a function which should return true if the
value is of that type. validate receives one parameter,
which is the value that we are checking.
Technical About
type-check is written in LiveScript - a language that compiles
to JavaScript. It also uses the prelude.ls library.