microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Surprising `Not all code paths return a value`

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Description

TypeScript Version: 2.5.2

Code

type AsyncFunction<T> = () => Promise<T>;

const f: AsyncFunction<number | void> = async () => {
  if (Math.random()) {
    return 1;
  }
};

Expected behavior:

No tsc errors.

Actual behavior:

const f: AsyncFunction<number | void> = async () => {
//                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [ts] Not all code paths return a value.

  if (Math.random()) {
    return 1;
  }
};

Notably, when using return-type annotation, this error does not occur:

async function a(): Promise<number | void> {
  if (Math.random()) {
    return 1;
  }
}

const b = async (): Promise<number | void> => {
  if (Math.random()) {
    return 1;
  }
};

In our real-world scenario, it would not be sufficient to look for this syntactic pattern. Rather, the fact that the async function is assigned to a union containing void should be the trigger that silences this error.

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First steps

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  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

Reproduce the TypeScript 2.5.2 examples with tsc, comparing the async arrow assigned to AsyncFunction<number | void> with the explicitly annotated functions. Done means the union containing void suppresses the unexpected diagnostic while the compiler still reports genuinely incomplete return paths.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
typescript
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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