microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

noImplicitReturnType [Suggestion]

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Description

We have noImplicitReturns which is great and helps tick up silly mistakes but it woud great to have noImplicitReturnType as well.

So what would noImplicitReturnType do?
Currently we can write a function like so:

function life () {
    return 42;
}
let x = life(); // Number

So all is great, TypeScript works out the return type nicely for us.

function life (x: boolean) {
    if (x) {
        return 'hi';
    } else {
        return 42;
    }
}
let y = life(true); // Number / String

This is where things start to go a little crazy. TypeScript records y as of type number | string which is of course acurate. But what if i wanted this function to only return strings?

We already have support for that with limited modifications

function life (x: boolean): string {
    if (x) {
        return 'hi';
    } else {
        return 42; // Type '42' is not assignable to type 'string'.
    }
}
let y = life(true);

And as a result TypeScript nicly throws an error.

So my suggestion is that in much the same way as with noImplicitAny and let enforcing strict typeing an argument is added in the form of noImplicitReturnType which for my first example (only a single return) wouldn't have any effect but for the second would throw an error instead of typing the function as number | string

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by comparing the existing noImplicitReturns and noImplicitAny options with the proposed noImplicitReturnType behavior described in the examples. Determine the intended diagnostics for functions whose inferred return type is a union, and define what would count as complete for the new compiler option; the issue names no files or tests.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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