microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Allow intersection type guards for multiple parameters

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Description

Search Terms

type guard multiple parameters

Suggestion

I'd like to write a type guard that takes two parameters and changes the type of both of them.

Use Cases

My specific use case is to try to make the following pattern (somewhat) more type-safe:

class Foo<TFeature, TOther> {
    // If featureCtor is null, TFeature will never be used.
    constructor(private readonly featureCtor: { new(): TFeature } | null) { }

    isFeature(thing: any): thing is TFeature {
        return !!this.featureCtor && thing instanceof this.featureCtor;
    }

    bar(thing: TFeature|TOther) {
        if (this.isFeature(thing)) {
            // Type guard should prove that this.featureCtor is not null
            new this.featureCtor();
        } else {
            // Type guard should prove this
            const x: TOther = thing;
        }
    }    
}

Examples

isFeature(thing: any, ctor: { new(): TFeature } | null): (thing is TFeature)&(ctor is { new(): TFeature }) {
    return !!this.featureCtor && thing instanceof this.featureCtor;
}

It would be even nicer to allow type guards to operate on readonly fields, so I wouldn't need to pass this.featureCtor as a parameter.

I also tried

constructor(private readonly featureCtor: TFeature extends never ? null : { new(): TFeature }) { }

But that didn't work.

Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

  • This wouldn't be a breaking change in existing TypeScript / JavaScript code
  • This wouldn't change the runtime behavior of existing JavaScript code
  • This could be implemented without emitting different JS based on the types of the expressions
  • This isn't a runtime feature (e.g. new expression-level syntax)

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 examining the issue's two-parameter type-guard example and the requested behavior for narrowing both parameters, including readonly fields. No source file or test is named in the issue; done would mean supporting intersection type guards without changing emitted JavaScript or existing runtime behavior.

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
25/100

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