microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Stricter disjunction of interfaces

Open
#54,051 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Awaiting More Feedback Suggestion
Dominant language
Go
Stars
111k
Forks
14.4k
Avg merge
1d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
117

Description

Suggestion

🔍 Search Terms

List of keywords you searched for before creating this issue. Write them down here so that others can find this suggestion more easily and help provide feedback.

✅ Viability Checklist

My suggestion meets these guidelines:

  • !!! This can be a breaking change
  • 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, new syntax sugar for JS, etc.)
  • This feature would agree with the rest of TypeScript's Design Goals.

⭐ Suggestion

📃 Motivating Example

Disjunction of interfaces can lead to an error

Here is example 1:

interface A { id: string }
interface B { id: number }

const a: A = {id: "xxxxx"};

function modifyObject(value: A | B){
    value.id = 100; // this is OK
    //    ^? (property) id: string | number
}

modifyObject(a);

console.log(a.id.toUpperCase());
//             ^? A.id: string
// [ERR]: a.id.toUpperCase is not a function

Problem: Typescript didn't find the error of type mismatch.

Example 2:

interface A { id: string }
interface B { id: number }

const v = {id: "xxxxx"} as A | B;

function modifyObject(value: A | B){
    value.id = 100; // this is OK
    //    ^? (property) id: string | number
}

modifyObject(v);

console.log(v.id.toUpperCase());
//             ^? (property) id: string | number
// TS: Property 'toUpperCase' does not exist on type 'number' --- OK!

Signature of modifyObject is same, but now code is correct.

Example 3:

interface A { id: string, readonly dataType: "A" }
interface B { id: number, readonly dataType: "B" }

const v = {id: "xxxxx", dataType: "A"} as A | B;

function modifyObject(value: A | B){
    value.id = 100; // this is NOT OK, but works
}

modifyObject(v);

console.log(v); // {id: 100, dataType: "A"} // type mismatch

It would be better if interface disjunction handled getters and setters

interface A { id: string, readonly dataType: "A" }
interface B { id: number, readonly dataType: "B" }

const v: A = {id: "xxxxx", dataType: "A"};

function modifyObject(
    value: /* automatically calculates from (A | B) */ {
        get id(): string | number;
        set id(value: string & number);
        get dataType(): "A" | "B";
    }
){
    console.log(value.id) // OK! This is number | string
    value.id = 100; // TS ERROR: 'number' is not assignable to type 'never'.
}

modifyObject(v); // OK

In this form, it will lead to breaking changes, so there can be 2 options:

  • make this behavior dependent on the flag
  • make additional type like:
function modifyObject(value: AnyOfType<A | B>){
    value.id = 100; // this is OK
    //    ^? (property) id: string | number
}

but this seems impossible

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

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Start by reproducing the three TypeScript examples and comparing current union-property read and write behavior; done requires an agreed design for stricter disjunction handling, including whether it is breaking or flag-dependent, with implementation scope and validation tests identified.

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

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.