Regression: incorrect return type when disabled strictNullChecks

🔎 Search Terms

"ts7011", "strictnullchecks"

🕗 Version & Regression Information

• This changed between versions 5.6.3 and 5.7.0-beta (also in 5.7.0-dev.20241010)

When disabled strictNullChecks in tsconfig.json error TS7011: Function expression, which lacks return-type annotation, implicitly has an T return type

⏯ Playground Link

https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?strict=false&strictNullChecks=false&alwaysStrict=false&noEmitHelpers=true&noUnusedLocals=true&esModuleInterop=false&declaration=false&importHelpers=true&experimentalDecorators=true&target=6&module=6&suppressImplicitAnyIndexErrors=true&strictBuiltinIteratorReturn=true&ts=5.7.0-dev.20241010#code/CYUwxgNghgTiAEAzArgOzAFwJYHtXwHcsJgxZgAVHAJRAHMBRADwAcAKAZwC54OMYsqOgEoetRq3gAfeKmQQIAbgBQYPH3gx5IDvAC88ANoByKMYA08YwCNjAXQB0iaBgCyUdlogI9APkLEpORU4sye2sLSMoZ2wopAA

💻 Code

declare function wildcardToRegExp(s: string): RegExp | null;
const rules = ['a', 'b'].flatMap(rule => wildcardToRegExp(rule) || []); // if flatMap<RegExp> - no error

🙁 Actual behavior

TS7011: Function expression, which lacks return-type annotation, implicitly has an 'RegExp | any[]' return type.

🙂 Expected behavior

No error

Additional information about the issue

No response

Empieza reproduciendo el caso enlazado de Playground con TypeScript 5.7 y la configuración de tsconfig mostrada; después, compáralo con 5.6.3. El cambio estará completo cuando el callback de flatMap ya no produzca TS7011 con strictNullChecks desactivado y el comportamiento indicado siga siendo correcto.