With the new typescript strict setting for catch blocks error being "unknown", this utility function intakes that unknown and gives back a consistently usable Error.

errorShapeFormatter.ts

const errorShapeFormatter = (thingToCatch: unknown) => {
  if (thingToCatch instanceof Error) {
    return thingToCatch as Error;
  }

  if (typeof thingToCatch === 'string') {
    return new Error(thingToCatch);
  }

  if (
    typeof thingToCatch === 'number' ||
    typeof thingToCatch === 'bigint' ||
    typeof thingToCatch === 'symbol'
  ) {
    return new Error(thingToCatch.toString());
  }

  return new Error('Attempted to format error with no useful information');
};

export { errorShapeFormatter };