What is utile?
The 'utile' npm package is a utility library that provides a collection of useful functions for various common tasks in Node.js development. It includes features for deep cloning, merging objects, asynchronous flow control, and more.
What are utile's main functionalities?
Deep Cloning
The 'clone' function allows you to create a deep copy of an object, ensuring that nested objects are also cloned rather than referenced.
const utile = require('utile');
const obj = { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } };
const clone = utile.clone(obj);
console.log(clone); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } }
Merging Objects
The 'mixin' function merges properties from one or more objects into a target object, with later objects overwriting properties of earlier ones.
const utile = require('utile');
const obj1 = { a: 1, b: 2 };
const obj2 = { b: 3, c: 4 };
const merged = utile.mixin(obj1, obj2);
console.log(merged); // { a: 1, b: 3, c: 4 }
Asynchronous Flow Control
The 'async.parallel' function allows you to run multiple asynchronous tasks in parallel and collect their results once all tasks have completed.
const utile = require('utile');
const tasks = [
function (callback) { setTimeout(() => callback(null, 'one'), 200); },
function (callback) { setTimeout(() => callback(null, 'two'), 100); }
];
utile.async.parallel(tasks, function (err, results) {
console.log(results); // ['one', 'two']
});
Other packages similar to utile
lodash
Lodash is a modern JavaScript utility library delivering modularity, performance, and extras. It provides a wide range of utility functions for common programming tasks, including deep cloning, object merging, and more. Compared to 'utile', Lodash is more comprehensive and widely adopted.
async
The 'async' library provides powerful functions for working with asynchronous JavaScript. It includes utilities for managing asynchronous control flow, such as parallel, series, and waterfall execution. While 'utile' includes some async utilities, 'async' is more specialized and feature-rich in this area.
underscore
Underscore is a JavaScript library that provides a whole mess of useful functional programming helpers without extending any built-in objects. It offers similar utilities to 'utile' for object manipulation, array operations, and more. Underscore is older and less modular than Lodash but still widely used.