nice-try

What is nice-try?

The nice-try npm package is a utility module that provides a simple way to attempt executing a function that might or might not throw an error without having to use try-catch blocks explicitly. It is designed to be a minimalistic and straightforward tool for safe function execution.

What are nice-try's main functionalities?

Safe Function Execution

This feature allows you to execute a function and if it throws an error, nice-try will catch it and return undefined instead of letting the error propagate. This is useful when you want to attempt an operation but don't want to handle the error explicitly.

const niceTry = require('nice-try');

const result = niceTry(() => {
  // Potentially risky operation
  return 'Operation successful';
});

console.log(result); // Outputs: 'Operation successful' or undefined if an error occurred

Other packages similar to nice-try

try-catch

The try-catch package provides a similar functionality to nice-try by allowing you to wrap synchronous code in a try-catch block without having to write the try-catch explicitly. It differs in that it returns an array with the error (if any) and the result, allowing you to handle both.

just-try

Just-try is a minimalistic package that allows you to try a function and catch any thrown errors. It is very similar to nice-try in its simplicity and straightforward approach but does not seem to offer additional features or improvements over nice-try.

README

nice-try

A function that tries to execute a function and discards any error that occurs.

Install

npm install nice-try

Usage

import niceTry from 'nice-try'

niceTry(() => JSON.parse('true')) // true
niceTry(() => JSON.parse('error')) // undefined
niceTry() // undefined
niceTry(true) // undefined

import niceTry from 'nice-try/promises'

await niceTry(async () => JSON.parse('true')) // true
await niceTry(async () => JSON.parse('error')) // undefined

API

nice-try

Parameters

• fn {Function} The function to execute.

Returns

• {*} The return value of the function, or undefined if an error occurred.

nice-try/promises

Parameters

• fn {Function} An asynchronous function to execute.

Returns

• {Promise<*>} The result of the function if it resolves successfully, otherwise undefined if an error is thrown.

What others say

This module is a controversial thing and people like to get mad about it. I decided to give those people a voice. Here's what they're saying.

fundamentally inane

— frou_dh

the worst Javascript library […] in several categories

— kuzux

how is this a thing

— uint8_t

This is blowing my mind

— mr_jim_lahey

a shit-tastic try-catch alias

— Dropping_fruits

I assumed every commit was a joke, but after researching the maintainer a bit I'm not sure it is...

— MrPineappleHat

Changelog

[4.0.1] - 2025-07-07

Changed

• Updated README to match functions