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JavaScript REST APIs with Express Refactoring and Modularizing a REST API Writing a Global Error Handler

Luis Walderdorff
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Luis Walderdorff
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,070 Points
Posted by Luis Walderdorff
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Luis Walderdorff
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 27,070 Points

How does the code know to use the global error handler, when you enter next(err)?

Couldn't it be, that there are multiple app.use handlers which end with next(something)? Does it mean every next() needs a unique variable? And next(err) gets created later than the delete request we enter it at, so when the code looks through all routes from top to bottom and stops at one that fits, shouldn't that mean that at the delete route, next(err) hasn't been created yet?

1 Answer

Zimri Leijen
Zimri Leijen
11,835 Points

in express, error handler functions are the only functions with 4 parameters (with the error object being the first parameter).

When next() is run, if it contains an error object, it will run the first error handler function it can find that it can find from that point forward. If next() does not contain an error object, it will run the next middleware function that is not an error handler.