What is pipe() function in Angular

Don't get confused with the concepts of Angular and RxJS

We have pipes concept in Angular and pipe() function in RxJS.

1) Pipes in Angular: A pipe takes in data as input and transforms it to the desired output
https://angular.io/guide/pipes

2) pipe() function in RxJS: You can use pipes to link operators together. Pipes let you combine multiple functions into a single function.

The pipe() function takes as its arguments the functions you want to combine, and returns a new function that, when executed, runs the composed functions in sequence.
https://angular.io/guide/rx-library (search for pipes in this URL, you can find the same)

So according to your question, you are referring pipe() function in RxJS

The Pipes you are talking about in the starting description are different from the pipe you showed in the example.

In Angular(2|4|5) Pipes are used to format view as you said. I think you have a basic understanding of pipes in Angular, you can learn more about that from this link - Angular Pipe Doc

The pipe() you have shown in the example is the pipe() method of RxJS 5.5 (RxJS is the default for all Angular apps). In Angular5 all the RxJS operators can be imported using single import and they are now combined using the pipe method.

tap() - RxJS tap operator will look at the Observable value and do something with that value. In other words, after a successful API request, the tap() operator will do any function you want it to perform with the response. In the example, it will just log that string.

catchError() - catchError does exactly the same thing but with error response. If you want to throw an error or want to call some function if you get an error, you can do it here. In the example, it will call handleError() and inside that, it will just log that string.

RxJS Operators are functions that build on the observables foundation to enable sophisticated manipulation of collections.

For example, RxJS defines operators such as map(), filter(), concat(), and flatMap().

You can use pipes to link operators together. Pipes let you combine multiple functions into a single function.

The pipe() function takes as its arguments the functions you want to combine, and returns a new function that, when executed, runs the composed functions in sequence.