4 ms·

Is there a difference between dedent`something ${code}` and dedent(`something ${code}`) ? Not sure to understand the advantage of tagged strings here.

• mhink 4y ago
  The difference is on the tag side. "Tag functions" receive the string segments separately from the interpolated values, so like: function exampleTag(stringSegment, ...values) { console.log(stringSegment); console.log(values); } const myNumber = 123; exampleTag`foo ${myNumber} bar ${myNumber}`; // Prints: // ['foo', 'bar', ''] // [123, 123] This gives the tag function a way to access the interpolated values themselves, before they get coerced to a String. You're correct, though, that it really doesn't make much of a difference for a dedent function.
  • tczMUFlmoNk 4y ago
    It is actually important for a dedent function when the interpolands contain newlines. Consider this example: function fmt(q, a) { return dedent`\ Question: ${q} Answer: ${a} `; } Since `dedent` is basically syntactic sugar for developer convenience, we want this function to be equivalent to this: function fmtDesugared(q, a) { return `Question: ${q}\nAnswer: ${a}\n`; } Now consider this input: console.log(fmt("a\nb", "c\nd")); // should print: Question: a b Answer: c d But if `dedent` only got to see the string after interpolation—like this— function fmtWrong(q, a) { return dedent(`\ Question: ${q} Answer: ${a} `); } then the input to `dedent` would be Question: a b Answer: c d and so `dedent` would not strip any indentation. That is, `dedent` is meant to identify the maximal common leading indentation in the template as written by the developer, which should not depend on the values of the interpolands. A stale GitHub issue on the dmnd/dedent repo has a real-world example where this matters and led to a subtle bug: https://github.com/dmnd/dedent/issues/22 https://github.com/dmnd/dedent/issues/22
    • mhink 4y ago
      That is an absolutely fantastic point, and one I hadn’t considered. Thanks for the explanation, and also for teaching me the word “interpolands”. :)