Ole•5mo ago

Ensure error is of type unknown with Deno lint

I'm having an interesting issue in a catch (error) { block. The issue is resolved when I change it to error: unknown, as I then get a type error in the function I call later. When the error is any, I get no warning, and I'm quite sure I'll forget to manually add : unknown to all my errors, so I'm looking for a way to guard for this 🤔

2 Replies

Ole•5mo ago

I'd love a deno_lint rule to enforce that I add : unknown to all my errors !! the useUnknownInCatchVariables rule seems to be my solution!

Deno AI Helper•5mo ago

I wasn't able to find the answer to your question in the official Deno documentation. However, based on your message, it seems like you are looking for a way to enforce that caught errors are of type unknown by default, to ensure you handle them properly in TypeScript. In TypeScript, when you use a catch block, the error is implicitly of type any. To enforce that errors are of type unknown, you can use a TypeScript compiler option or a lint rule. However, as of my knowledge cutoff date, Deno's built-in linter does not have a specific rule that enforces caught errors to be of type unknown. As a workaround, you can manually specify the type of the caught error as unknown like this:

try {
  // some code that might throw
} catch (error: unknown) {
  // handle the error
}

try {
  // some code that might throw
} catch (error: unknown) {
  // handle the error
}

This will force you to perform type checks or type assertions before you can use the error object, which is a safer approach. Please note that this advice is not based on the Deno documentation, and I would advise you to double-check the accuracy of the advice given. It's also a good idea to keep an eye on updates to Deno and its linter, as new rules and features are added over time that might address this issue directly.

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