Consider returning empty object instead of null

[benjamingr]

Consider returning empty object instead of null

[benjamingr]

The reason we return null is to act similar to .exec which behaves this way. Personally I'd rather throw but I want to do what developers find the least surprising.

Any ideas how to communicate what we return better?

[maniator]

Personally I think that the parser function should throw some sort of an error of what went wrong instead of returning null so that I can structure my code better and always assume that the parser will return with the same type and never with null.

Otherwise when using the parser one has to add on a guard clause which I personally find to be a code smell.

It is all a matter of opinion though.

[maniator]

Also maybe returning an object with a _error key may work as well instead of throwing an error could work. with that key containing a reason of why it failed etc.

All just random ideas I am throwing out.

[benjamingr]

I've decided I'll wait for more user feedback before addressing this.