microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

String union types narrowed to falsy should narrow string to ""

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#45,329 6 comments 9 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Description

Bug Report

🔎 Search Terms

string truthy falsy narrow literal empty

🕗 Version & Regression Information
  • This is a crash
  • This changed between versions ______ and _______
  • This is the behavior in every version I tried, and I reviewed the FAQ for entries about narrowing
  • I was unable to test this on prior versions because _______
⏯ Playground Link

Playground link with relevant code

💻 Code
let value = Math.random() > 0.5 && "Some Name";

if (!value) {
  value; // Type: false | string, but should be false | ""
}
🙁 Actual behavior

Inside the narrowed block, value should be false | "", because no other string value is falsy.

🙂 Expected behavior

It's the more general false | string instead.

This was a hard issue to search for; #41503, #33878, and #31156 seemed related but not duplicate to me.

Shoutout to RyanCavanaugh for sending me a code snippet that looked like this -- no good deed goes unpunished in the issue tracker 😄

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

Reproduce the narrowing case in the linked TypeScript Playground, then read the related discussions in issues #41503, #33878, and #31156. Trace the type-checking behavior for falsy string unions and verify that the narrowed result distinguishes false from the empty string; the issue is done when the regression is covered and the reported type is corrected.

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
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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