nullable

A library for dealing with null values in foreign libraries.

nullable is intended to be used with PureScript's Foreign Function Interface (FFI). If you are looking for general-purpose optional values, use Maybe instead.

Install nullable with Spago:

spago install nullable

The following example lives in examples and can be built and run using spago -x examples.dhall run.

Here we have a little JavaScript function that we can use to determine whether a number is unlucky. We give it some number and it will either return null if the number is considered "unlucky" or just return the number otherwise:

"use strict";

exports.unluckyImpl = function (n) {
  // Unlucky number 13!
  if (n === 13) {
    return null;
  }

  return n;
};

If we want to use this function from PureScript we'll need to go through the FFI:

module QuickStart
  ( unlucky -- We only want to expose our "safe" `unlucky` function outside of
            -- this module and keep the backing implementation (`unluckyImpl`)
            -- hidden.
  ) where

import Prelude
import Data.Function.Uncurried (Fn1, runFn1)
import Data.Maybe (Maybe)
import Data.Nullable (Nullable, toMaybe)

-- Here we declare a binding to a foreign JavaScript function that we'll call
-- out to using the FFI.
--
-- This function takes an `Int` and then returns either an integer or a `null`
-- based on the given value. We use `Nullable Int` to indicate that we could
-- get a `null` back from this function.
foreign import unluckyImpl :: Fn1 Int (Nullable Int)

-- We don't want to have to use `Nullable` in our PureScript code, so we can use
-- `toMaybe` to convert our `Nullable Int` into a `Maybe Int` which will then be
-- part of the API visible outside of this module.
unlucky :: Int -> Maybe Int
unlucky n = toMaybe $ runFn1 unluckyImpl n

You can run the following to load this example up in the REPL:

spago -x examples.dhall repl

Once the REPL is loaded, go ahead and add the following imports:

import Prelude
import Data.Maybe
import QuickStart

You can now test out our unlucky function in the REPL:

unlucky 7  == Just 7
unlucky 13 == Nothing

nullable documentation is stored in a few places:

1. Module documentation is published on Pursuit.
2. Written documentation is kept in the docs directory.
3. Usage examples can be found in the test suite.

If you get stuck, there are several ways to get help:

• Open an issue if you have encountered a bug or problem.
• Search or start a thread on the PureScript Discourse if you have general questions. You can also ask questions in the #purescript and #purescript-beginners channels on the Functional Programming Slack (invite link).

You can contribute to nullable in several ways:

1. If you encounter a problem or have a question, please open an issue. We'll do our best to work with you to resolve or answer it.

2. If you would like to contribute code, tests, or documentation, please read the contributor guide. It's a short, helpful introduction to contributing to this library, including development instructions.

3. If you have written a library, tutorial, guide, or other resource based on this package, please share it on the PureScript Discourse! Writing libraries and learning resources are a great way to help this library succeed.