[](https://travis-ci.org/gcanti/monocle-ts)
[](https://david-dm.org/gcanti/monocle-ts)
# Motivation
(Adapted from [monocle site](https://www.optics.dev/Monocle/))
Modifying immutable nested object in JavaScript is verbose which makes code difficult to understand and reason about.
Let's have a look at some examples:
```ts
interface Street {
num: number
name: string
}
interface Address {
city: string
street: Street
}
interface Company {
name: string
address: Address
}
interface Employee {
name: string
company: Company
}
```
Let’s say we have an employee and we need to upper case the first character of his company street name. Here is how we
could write it in vanilla JavaScript
```ts
const employee: Employee = {
name: 'john',
company: {
name: 'awesome inc',
address: {
city: 'london',
street: {
num: 23,
name: 'high street'
}
}
}
}
const capitalize = (s: string): string => s.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + s.substring(1)
const employeeCapitalized = {
...employee,
company: {
...employee.company,
address: {
...employee.company.address,
street: {
...employee.company.address.street,
name: capitalize(employee.company.address.street.name)
}
}
}
}
```
As we can see copy is not convenient to update nested objects because we need to repeat ourselves. Let's see what could
we do with `monocle-ts`
```ts
import { Lens } from 'monocle-ts'
const company = Lens.fromProp<Employee>()('company')
const address = Lens.fromProp<Company>()('address')
const street = Lens.fromProp<Address>()('street')
const name = Lens.fromProp<Street>()('name')
```
`compose` takes two `Lenses`, one from `A` to `B` and another one from `B` to `C` and creates a third `Lens` from `A` to
`C`. Therefore, after composing `company`, `address`, `street` and `name`, we obtain a `Lens` from `Employee` to
`string` (the street name). Now we can use this `Lens` issued from the composition to modify the street name using the
function `capitalize`
```ts
const capitalizeName = company.compose(address).compose(street).compose(name).modify(capitalize)
assert.deepStrictEqual(capitalizeName(employee), employeeCapitalized)
```
You can use the `fromPath` API to avoid some boilerplate
```ts
import { Lens } from 'monocle-ts'
const name = Lens.fromPath<Employee>()(['company', 'address', 'street', 'name'])
const capitalizeName = name.modify(capitalize)
assert.deepStrictEqual(capitalizeName(employee), employeeCapitalized) // true
```
Here `modify` lift a function `string => string` to a function `Employee => Employee`. It works but it would be clearer
if we could zoom into the first character of a `string` with a `Lens`. However, we cannot write such a `Lens` because
`Lenses` require the field they are directed at to be _mandatory_. In our case the first character of a `string` is
optional as a `string` can be empty. So we need another abstraction that would be a sort of partial Lens, in
`monocle-ts` it is called an `Optional`.
```ts
import { Optional } from 'monocle-ts'
import { some, none } from 'fp-ts/Option'
const firstLetterOptional = new Optional<string, string>(
(s) => (s.length > 0 ? some(s[0]) : none),
(a) => (s) => (s.length > 0 ? a + s.substring(1) : s)
)
const firstLetter = company.compose(address).compose(street).compose(name).asOptional().compose(firstLetterOptional)
assert.deepStrictEqual(firstLetter.modify((s) => s.toUpperCase())(employee), employeeCapitalized)
```
Similarly to `compose` for lenses, `compose` for optionals takes two `Optionals`, one from `A` to `B` and another from
`B` to `C` and creates a third `Optional` from `A` to `C`. All `Lenses` can be seen as `Optionals` where the optional
element to zoom into is always present, hence composing an `Optional` and a `Lens` always produces an `Optional`.
# TypeScript compatibility
The stable version is tested against TypeScript 3.5.2, but should run with TypeScript 2.8.0+ too
| `monocle-ts` version | required `typescript` version |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------- |
| 2.0.x+ | 3.5+ |
| 1.x+ | 2.8.0+ |
**Note**. If you are running `< typescript@3.0.1` you have to polyfill `unknown`.
You can use [unknown-ts](https://github.com/gcanti/unknown-ts) as a polyfill.
# Documentation
- [API Reference](https://gcanti.github.io/monocle-ts/)
## Experimental modules (version `2.3+`)
Experimental modules (\*) are published in order to get early feedback from the community.
The experimental modules are **independent and backward-incompatible** with stable ones.
(\*) A feature tagged as _Experimental_ is in a high state of flux, you're at risk of it changing without notice.
From `monocle@2.3+` you can use the following experimental modules:
- `Iso`
- `Lens`
- `Prism`
- `Optional`
- `Traversal`
- `At`
- `Ix`
which implement the same features contained in `index.ts` but are `pipe`-based instead of `class`-based.
Here's the same examples with the new API
```ts
interface Street {
num: number
name: string
}
interface Address {
city: string
street: Street
}
interface Company {
name: string
address: Address
}
interface Employee {
name: string
company: Company
}
const employee: Employee = {
name: 'john',
company: {
name: 'awesome inc',
address: {
city: 'london',
street: {
num: 23,
name: 'high street'
}
}
}
}
const capitalize = (s: string): string => s.substring(0, 1).toUpperCase() + s.substring(1)
const employeeCapitalized = {
...employee,
company: {
...employee.company,
address: {
...employee.company.address,
street: {
...employee.company.address.street,
name: capitalize(employee.company.address.street.name)
}
}
}
}
import * as assert from 'assert'
import * as L from 'monocle-ts/Lens'
import { pipe } from 'fp-ts/function'
const capitalizeName = pipe(
L.id<Employee>(),
L.prop('company'),
L.prop('address'),
L.prop('street'),
L.prop('name'),
L.modify(capitalize)
)
assert.deepStrictEqual(capitalizeName(employee), employeeCapitalized)
import * as O from 'monocle-ts/Optional'
import { some, none } from 'fp-ts/Option'
const firstLetterOptional: O.Optional<string, string> = {
getOption: (s) => (s.length > 0 ? some(s[0]) : none),
set: (a) => (s) => (s.length > 0 ? a + s.substring(1) : s)
}
const firstLetter = pipe(
L.id<Employee>(),
L.prop('company'),
L.prop('address'),
L.prop('street'),
L.prop('name'),
L.composeOptional(firstLetterOptional)
)
assert.deepStrictEqual(
pipe(
firstLetter,
O.modify((s) => s.toUpperCase())
)(employee),
employeeCapitalized
)
```