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Creating custom Error classes in Node.js
'use strict';
module.exports = function CustomError(message, extra) {
Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor);
this.name = this.constructor.name;
this.message = message;
this.extra = extra;
};
require('util').inherits(module.exports, Error);

It's nice to be able to distinguish error types by classes. But it's a bit tricky to correctly create a custom error class in Node.js, so here is an example.

The example also shows how to add an extra parameter called extra that will be stored as a property on the error.

Usage

var CustomError = require('./errors/custom-error');

function doSomethingBad() {
  throw new CustomError('It went bad!', 42);
}

Features

  • Name appears once - less editing if you have to create lots of custom error classes
  • Easy to subclass - just change the last line to inherit from another custom error class you created
  • Correct stack trace - no extra stack frames, no double capturing of the stack trace

Anti-patterns

These are some things that I've seen in other proposed solutions that you should avoid.

  • Error.call(this) - creates another error object (wasting a bunch of time) and doesn't touch this at all
  • Error.captureStackTrace(this, arguments.callee); - works, but arguments.callee is deprecated, so don't use it
  • this.stack = (new Error).stack - this... I don't even...
// Mini test suite for our custom error
var assert = require('assert');
var CustomError = require('./errors/custom-error');
function doSomethingBad() {
throw new CustomError('It went bad!', 42);
}
try {
doSomethingBad();
} catch (err) {
// The name property should be set to the error's name
assert(err.name = 'CustomError');
// The error should be an instance of its class
assert(err instanceof CustomError);
// The error should be an instance of builtin Error
assert(err instanceof Error);
// The error should be recognized by Node.js' util#isError
assert(require('util').isError(err));
// The error should have recorded a stack
assert(err.stack);
// toString should return the default error message formatting
assert.strictEqual(err.toString(),
'CustomError: It went bad!');
// The stack should start with the default error message formatting
assert.strictEqual(err.stack.split('\n')[0],
'CustomError: It went bad!');
// The first stack frame should be the function where the error was thrown.
assert.strictEqual(err.stack.split('\n')[1].indexOf('doSomethingBad'), 7);
// The extra property should have been set
assert.strictEqual(err.extra, 42);
}
// Spoiler: It passes!
@mizunashi-mana
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mizunashi-mana commented Nov 23, 2016

In Node 7.1 and TypeScript, this works:

export class ErrorBase extends Error {
  public name: string;

  constructor(message: string) {
    super(message);
    this.name = (this.constructor as any).name;
    this.message = message;
    Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor); // after initialize properties
  }
}

Updated:

this features was added in typescript 2.1, so this implementation is better (see also below comment):

export interface ErrorBase extends Error {
  readonly name: string;
  readonly message: string;
  readonly stack: string;
};
export interface ErrorBaseConstructor {
  new (message: string): ErrorBase;
  readonly prototype: ErrorBase;
}

export const ErrorBase: ErrorBaseConstructor = <any>class ErrorBase {
  public constructor(message: string) {
    Object.defineProperty(this, 'name', {
      get: () => (this.constructor as any).name,
    });
    Object.defineProperty(this, 'message', {
      get: () => message,
    });
    Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor);
  }
};
(ErrorBase as any).prototype = Object.create(Error.prototype);
ErrorBase.prototype.constructor = ErrorBase;

@urugator
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In Node (7.2) console.log will print custom errors a bit differently unless all properties are defined as non-enumerable:

class CustomError extends Error {
  constructor(...args) {    
    super(...args);    
    Object.defineProperty(this, "name", {           
      value: this.constructor.name
    });        
    Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor);
  }
}

@mathieug
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@urugator: do you have a link about this? Thank you!

@gunar
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gunar commented Apr 11, 2017

I avoid classes (classical-inheritance is flawed) and types (google: instanceof lies).
The best solution is just to duck-type. See http://gunargessner.com/subclassing-exception/.

@tinybug
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tinybug commented Jul 10, 2017

It's more better move Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor); after this.message = message;, then the e.stack will output like this:
CustomError: custom ...
Otherwise it will output:
Error ...
that output of stack will miss error type and message

@erikologic
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So tricky

node --version  
v7.10.0
module.exports = function CustomError(message, extra) {
  this.name = this.constructor.name
  this.message = message
  Error.captureStackTrace(this, this.constructor)
  this.extra = extra
}

module.exports.prototype.inspect = function () {
  return this.stack
}

Error.test.js

class MyCustomError extends require('./Errors') {}

try {
  throw new MyCustomError ('message')
} catch (err) {
  console.log(err);
  console.log(err.constructor.name);
  console.log(err instanceof MyCustomError)
  console.log(err.stack);
}

node Error.test.js

MyCustomError: message
    at Object.<anonymous> (Error.test.js:4:9)
    at Module._compile (module.js:571:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:580:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:488:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:447:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:439:3)
    at Module.runMain (module.js:605:10)
    at run (bootstrap_node.js:427:7)
    at startup (bootstrap_node.js:151:9)
    at bootstrap_node.js:542:3

https://gist.github.com/mrenrich84/f499c4697a5f3e650f37def3ec8acc22

@shivarajnaidu
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Why Not

     function MyCustomError(message, extra) {
          const error  = new Error(message);
          error.name = 'MyCustomError';
          if (extra) {
                error.extra = extra;
           }

          return error;
     }


throw MyCustomError('Something Went Wrong');

@constgen
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constgen commented Mar 2, 2018

Because

var error = new MyCustomError('Something Went Wrong');
error instanceof MyCustomError // false

Which is not expected. You can't check the type of error for example in this case

try { }
catch(err){
  switch(true){
    case err instanceof MyCustomError: break;
    case err instanceof Error: break;
  }
}

@ramzes13
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@laggingreflex
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These were all showing up in the console as an object, not as the usual Error:

{ CustomError: test
    at ... 
        name: 'CustomError' }

Instead if I use the name getter, I get the usual error-like appearance:

class CustomError { 
    get name () { return this.constructor.name } 
}
CustomError: test
    at ...

@tcf909
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tcf909 commented Jul 15, 2019

How do you match the string representation of CustomError to that of Error object?

Object.prototype.toString.call(new Error); // '[object Error]'
Object.prototype.toString.call(new CustomError); //  '[object Object]'

You need to define the toStringTag for the CustomError:

Object.defineProperty(CustomError.prototype, Symbol.toStringTag, {
	value: 'Error',
	writable: false, configurable: false, enumerable: false
});

This consequently help with libraries like lodash and it's _.isError().

@hiddentao
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Thanks for the gist, and thanks to all the commenters for the suggestions.

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