Why TypeScript Developers Should Replace try-catch With Functional Either Types

TypeScript's exception-based error handling hides failures inside function signatures, leaving callers unaware that a function might throw and the compiler unable to enforce error handling. A functional alternative called the Either type explicitly encodes success or failure directly in a function's return type, making all possible outcomes visible to both developers and the type system. Using Either with a pipe utility allows multiple validation steps to be chained cleanly, where any failing step short-circuits the pipeline and propagates a typed error automatically. This approach eliminates the ambiguity of catch blocks receiving unknown error types and removes the need for nested try-catch structures. Libraries such as @oofp/core provide ready-made Either and pipe utilities to help TypeScript developers adopt this pattern in real-world applications.