simpleargumentsparser

simpleArgumentsParser

What

A simple library to parse cli arguments. Perfect to make commands

Why Use

You can make your own even simplier parser adapted exactly to your code requeriments. But using this library, you can save a lot of time.

Writing custom parsers like i was doing for each command, takes a good amount of time. More even on simpler ones. Just better throw a npm install, a require await the parser and you ready to go.

Why not other?

I created this library because i don't like any of other command parsers i tryied. Some are to basic, others are to bug for a simple parsing, others just don't work well and other are to complicated.

I probably will be using this library from now. So i will be finding and fixing errors, improving the code, etc. It's going to get much better.

How to install?

npm i simpleargumentsparser

Basic usage

Arguments are short to reduce time programming.

const CLI = {
  s: {}, // single
  c: {}, // couple
  o: [], // other
  p: {}, // pipped
  e: [], // end
  noArgs: false,
  argc: process.argv.length - 2
};

• s

• s holds single hyphen arguments like -v
• s allow multiple arguments after a single hyphen like -lvk
• If text dosn't follow, true is assigned
• If text follows, takes it as value of argument

$ helloworld -n Manolo -vd

s: { n: "Manolo", v: true, d: true }

• c

• c holds double guion arguments like --add
• c allows guions between words like --add-new-number
• If text doesn't follow, true is assigned
• If text follows, takes it as value of argument

$ helloworld --name String --last-name Manolo --verbose  

c: { name: "String", 'last-name': "Manolo", verbose: true }

• o

• o holds other arguments (anything else found, except - and -- )
• o Arguments are followed by a number indicating their position

$ helloworld hello how are you

o: [ [ "hello", 1 ], [ "how", 2 ], [ "are", 3 ], [ "you", 4 ] ]

• p

• p holds pipped input data
• You can use pipped and arguments together

$ echo "Hey!" | helloworld -n Manolo  

p: "Hey!",
s: { n: 'Manolo' }

• e

• e holds errors and the some time used double hyphen end command
• Errors will be added in the future

$ helloworld -v -- helloworld2 -v -- helloworld3 -v  

e: [ 2, 5 ]

• noArgs

• noArgs is just a boolean set to true if no arguments provided

• If pipped is provided, noArgs will remain to false

• argc

• argc counts the number of arguments

• argc doesn't count pipped as an argument

const parseCLI = require("simpleargumentsparser");

(async() => {
  const cli = await parseCLI();

  let verbose = false;
  if (cli.noArgs)                  exit("Arguments needed");
  if (cli.s.h || cli.c.help)       exit("Help Menu:\n\nThis is just an example");
  if (cli.s.v || cli.c.verbose)    verbose = true;
  if (cli.c.version)               exit("V0.0.1");
  if (cli.s.s)                     console.log("Hello!");
  if (cli.p)                       console.log("Hello", cli.p);
  if (cli.c?.["debug-arguments"])  console.log(JSON.stringify(cli, null, 4));

})();

const exit = msg => {
  console.log(msg);
  process.exit(0);
}