Pseudomandatory parameters in ES6 functions

In many programming languages the parameters of a function are by default mandatory and the developer has to explicitly define that a parameter is optional. In Javascript, every parameter is optional, but we can enforce this behavior without messing with the actual body of a function, taking advantage of [es6’s default values for parameters] (http://exploringjs.com/es6/ch_parameter-handling.html#sec_parameter-default-values) feature.

const _err = function( message ){
  throw new Error( message );
}

const getSum = (a = _err('a is not defined'), b = _err('b is not defined')) => a + b

getSum( 10 ) // throws Error, b is not defined
getSum( undefined, 10 ) // throws Error, a is not defined

_err is a function that immediately throws an Error. If no value is passed for one of the parameters, the default value is going to be used, _err will be called and an Error will be thrown. You can see more examples for the default parameters feature on Mozilla’s Developer Network