getErrorMessage

Extract a human-readable message from anything thrown — `Error`, `string`, `{ message }` objects, or arbitrary values.

Especially useful inside catch blocks where the caught value is typed unknown.

Usage

import { getErrorMessage } from '@maz-ui/utils'

try {
  await doSomething()
}
catch (error) {
  console.error(getErrorMessage(error))
}

API

function getErrorMessage(error: unknown): string

Resolution rules

The helper inspects error in this order:

1. error instanceof Error → returns error.message.
2. typeof error === 'string' → returns error as-is.
3. error is a plain object with a message property → returns String(error.message).
4. error is otherwise truthy → returns String(error).
5. error is falsy → returns 'An unexpected error occurred'.