microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Fails to expand indexed access type when used as a generic type parameter

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Domain: Indexed Access Types Help Wanted Possible Improvement
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Description

Bug Report

This logic is part of a proprietary DSL where the user wants to work with a number of types, specified as a record. Most of the time the user calls a function similar to

declare function someOtherFunction<T extends DiscriminatorRecord>(record: T): { [K in keyof T]: DiscriminatedUnion<T[K]> }

in which case there are no problems with the inference, but sometimes T needs to be restricted to have certain keys and values, as shown in the code below. One part of the problem that I wasn't able to reproduce in a code example was the fact that it did work with four types in the union, but failed when I added a fifth. Whereas in the example it fails with any number except one. I could spend more time on reproduction, but hopefully this will be helpful to start with.

🔎 Search Terms

generic indexed access type inference

🕗 Version & Regression Information
  • This is the behavior in every version (5.0.4, 5.1.3, v5.2.0-dev.20230625) I tried, and I reviewed the FAQ for entries about Type System Behavior, Generics
⏯ Playground Link

Playground link with relevant code

💻 Code
type Discriminator =
  | 'First'
  | 'Second'
  | 'Third'

type DiscriminatedUnion<D extends Discriminator> = { discriminator: D } & (
  | { discriminator: 'First', first: boolean }
  | { discriminator: 'Second', second: boolean }
  | { discriminator: 'Third', third: boolean }
  )

type DiscriminatorRecord = Record<string, Discriminator>

function someFunction<T extends DiscriminatorRecord & { override: 'Third' }>() {
  type DiscriminatorFromT = T['override'] // If this expands to 'Third'

  type DiscriminatedFromLiteral = DiscriminatedUnion<'Third'> // then this

  type DiscriminatedFromT = DiscriminatedUnion<DiscriminatorFromT> // should be equivalent to this

  const f1 = (d: DiscriminatedFromLiteral) => d.third; // yet this works
  const f2 = (d: DiscriminatedFromT) => d.third; // but not this
}

🙁 Actual behavior

const f2 = (d: DiscriminatedFromT) => d.third; fails with

Property 'third' does not exist on type 'DiscriminatedUnion<DiscriminatorFromT>'.
  Property 'third' does not exist on type '{ discriminator: DiscriminatorFromT; } & { discriminator: "First"; first: boolean; }'.
🙂 Expected behavior

The property third is inferred to exist on d in const f2 = (d: DiscriminatedFromT) => d.third;

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 linked TypeScript Playground and the reproduction in the issue, then compare the literal generic argument with the indexed access type used in DiscriminatedUnion. Confirm the behavior across the reported versions and determine what change makes d.third resolve correctly without breaking the existing union behavior.

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
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
40/100

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