microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Type logical operators "and", "or" and "not" in extends clauses for mapped types

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Description

Search Terms

Pretty much the ones in the title...

Suggestion

I would like the ability to use logical operators for types.

I am aware that not is already planned as a feature, but I would like to make sure that this gets further extended to other logical operators, and I couldn't find any hints that this is in your minds already.

Use Cases

Type composition, better readability...

Examples

Current tricks to get to the desired behavior:

type Not<T extends boolean> = T extends true ? false : true

type Or<A extends boolean, B extends boolean> = A extends true
    ? true
    : B extends true
        ? true
        : false

type Or3<A extends boolean, B extends boolean, C extends boolean> = Or<A, Or<B, C>>

type And<A extends boolean, B extends boolean> = A extends true
    ? B extends true
        ? true
        : false
    : false

A few arbitrary use cases:

type Primitive = boolean | number | string | symbol | null | undefined | void
type IsA<T, E> = T extends E ? true : false

type IsIndexSignature<P> = Or<IsA<string, P>, IsA<number, P>>

type IsCallback<F extends Function> = F extends (...args: any[]) => any
    ? And<Not<IsA<Parameters<F>[0], Primitive>>, IsA<Parameters<F>[0], Event>> extends true
        ? true
        : false
    : false

All together in the Playground: here

Desired syntactic sugar to write the same:

type IsIndexSignature<P> = IsA<string, P> or IsA<number, P>

type IsCallback<F extends Function> = F extends (...args: any[]) => any
    ? not IsA<Parameters<F>[0], Primitive> and IsA<Parameters<F>[0], Event> extends true
        ? true
        : false
    : false

It would make the most sense to accompany this with better support for boolean checks in type definitions. That is, to allow to use the ternary operator directly without the constant need for extends true everywhere. Possibly, a new sort of "boolean type declaration" could be introduced, as to avoid having to propagate the boolean value all the way. For example, it should be possible to define KnownKeys (not full implementation here) like this:

type KnownKeys<T> = {
    [P in keyof T]: IsIndexSignature<P> ? never : T[P]
}

Without the need to do:

type KnownKeys<T> = {
    [P in keyof T]: IsIndexSignature<P> extends true ? never : T[P]
}

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. library functionality, non-ECMAScript syntax with JavaScript output, etc.)
  • This feature would agree with the rest of TypeScript's Design Goals.

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 with the issue’s Playground examples and compare the requested syntax with TypeScript’s existing conditional and mapped type behavior. Review how type definitions currently express boolean results and determine the scope of supporting and, or, and not in extends clauses. Done means the proposal’s examples are supported without changing emitted JavaScript, with suitable type-system validation.

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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