Piping functions in ReasonML

If you've read through the ReasonML docs before, you may have noticed that there's not too much information available on their syntax sugar for piping functions, which is one of my personal favorite features of using ReasonML.

The pipe operator

The pipe operator |> allows you to chain fOnce you pipe, you'll never go back.unction calls together in a much simpler syntax than you may be used to using when using higher order functions in JavaScript. Let's see the normal/expected way of doing this.

let example = doThisLast(doThisSecond(doThisFirst(variableName))) /* hard to read */

and here's the same function chain with the |> pipe operator:

let example = variableName |> doThisFirst |> doThisSecond |> doThisLast /* much easier to read */

Piping lists, arrays and more

Just like chaining built-in functions like .map, .filter and .reduce in JavaScript, you can use the |> pipe operator in ReasonML on all of their data types to accomplish the same thing. here are a few examples:

Lists

let mammal = ["cat", "dog", "turtle"]
  |> List.filter(animal => animal !== "turtle")
  |> List.map(animal => "Animal type: " ++ animal);

Js.log(mammal)

/* ["Animal type: cat",["Animal type: dog",0]] */

Note: a list in ReasonML works differently than a JavaScript array. You can learn more about the difference between lists and arrays in the ReasonML docs.

Arrays

let mammal = [|"cat", "dog", "turtle"|]
  |> Array.append([|"human", "duck"|])
  |> Array.map(animal => "I'm a " ++ animal);

Js.log(mammal)
/* ["I'm a human","I'm a duck","I'm a cat","I'm a dog","I'm a turtle"] */

Strings

let man = "Johnathan";

let newManScreaming = String.sub(man, 0, 4) |> String.uppercase;

Js.log(newManScreaming);

/* "JOHN" */

Conclusion

Have fun with the pipe operator |> syntax in ReasonML! You can use it on much more than the simple examples above, such as tuples, records, etc. It makes life much, much easier to read when manipulating data with functions and is definitely worth adding to your arsenal of tricks. Happy coding! SL