`typeof` expressions should return an equivalent of a guard

Search Terms

typeof guard array filter

Suggestion

Currently, typeof expressions return a boolean as expected. However, they are also special in that they narrow the types of their operands. In a similar vein, we can use type guards as the return value of functions to narrow(or assert) the types of their parameters:

declare const broad: string | number | object;
if(typeof broad === 'number') {
    // broad is now a number, not a string nor an object
}

declare function isNumber(param: any): param is number;

if(isNumber(broad) {
  // broad is now a number, not a string nor an object
}

This is all fine, but suppose you write a very specific function:

// Current return type: boolean
// Wish it was `param is number`
const isNumber = (param: any) => typeof param === 'number'

if (isNumber(broad)) {
   // param is possibly a string or object?!
}

This is IMO a special case that should be handled; particularly, when a typeof expression(or any expression that narrows a parameter's type) is the return value of a function, TS should infer that the function is a guard.

Notice that, unlike the discussion in #6015, this issue is about the inferred type of a function which has a return value of a narrowing-expression. We could go further:

const isObject = (o: unknown) => typeof o === 'object';
// type for isObject == (o:unknown) => o is object

const isElement = (o: object) => o instanceof Element;
// type for isElement == (o:object) => o is Element

const unknownIsElement = (o: unknown) => isObject(o) && isElement(o);
// type for unknownIsElement == (o:unknown) => o is Element

const numberIsElement = (o:unknown) => isNumber(o) && isElement(o); // error: o is number so isElement can't be called

(by the way, I searched but couldn't find a similar one. If this is a duplicate I apologize!)

Use Cases

The most immediate use case is for array filter:

// error: (string|object)[] not assignable to string[]
const stringElements: string[] = elements.filter(e => typeof e === 'string');

// Works, but repetitive
const stringElements: string[] = elements.filter((e): e is string => typeof e === 'string');

I'm sure this type of change would make guards far more powerful as well, since we could create functions combine JS-checks(typeof, instanceof) or even TS-checks(like discriminant variable checking) without having to explicitly write the guard expression(which, IMO is as good as a type assertion at the moment).

Examples

(see above)

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.

This is possibly a breaking change, but IMO a good one as it would highlight actual programming errors for code that breaks

Untersuche zunächst die Bereiche des TypeScript-Compilers, die für die Inferenz von Funktionsrückgabetypen und die Control-Flow-Narrowing zuständig sind, und verwende dabei die typeof-, instanceof-, composed-guard- und Array.filter-Beispiele im Issue als Verhaltensfälle. Die Arbeit ist abgeschlossen, wenn inferierte Prädikate Werte wie gezeigt eingrenzen, ohne das erzeugte JavaScript zu ändern, und wenn auch das vorgeschlagene Fehlerverhalten abgedeckt ist.