node.js - Making new type of errors in JavaScript

Question

I occasionally forget to use the await keyword, e.g.:

const foo = bar();
// instead of
const foo = await bar();

Those bugs are difficult to spot. Which methods, libraries or tools are available to prevent those kind of bugs?

Answer 1

You should use a linter like ESLint. If you integrate the tool with your IDE/Editor and you enable the default set of rules (or your own) it'll make your life a lot easier.

I'm pretty sure your example falls into the rule no-floating-promises, which disallows the usage of promises without proper handling. In your case bar() returns a promise but there's no await or then to handle the result.

To enable that rule you'll have to install ESLint plus the typescript-eslint plugin. I'll also strongly recommend you to use TypeScript over JavaScript, since it'll catch a series of bugs during development and you can transpile your TS code into common JS code.