Readable code with objects, constants & attributes

Occasionally when working with external APIs, you need to send over some cryptic status:

postData(
  `http://example.com/orders/123`,
  { status: 2 }
)

But what does 2 mean?!

We can use objects to make this a bit easier to maintain

const STATUS = { processing: 0, error: 1, completed: 2 }

postData(
  `http://example.com/orders/123`,
  { status: STATUS.completed }
)

Now we can immediately see the order status is completed.

This technique is applicable in other languages as well:

Ruby with a constant:

STATUS = { error: 0, processing: 1, completed: 2 }
STATUS[:completed]

Elixir as a module attribute

defmodule Order do
  @status %{error: 0, processing: 1, completed: 2}

  def completed, do: @status.completed
end