microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript
Unexpected distributive behaviour on type alias
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@ahejlsberg is already working on this.
Since Nov 17, 2025.
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Description
🔎 Search Terms
distributive conditional types, naked type parameter, type alias, unions
🕗 Version & Regression Information
- This changed between versions 3.8.3 and 3.9.7.
- This is the behavior in every version I tried, and I reviewed the FAQ for entries about distributive conditional types, naked type parameter, type alias, unions.
⏯ Playground Link
💻 Code
type Value = 1 | 2
type Result = [Value] extends [infer V]
? V extends unknown
? [V, Value]
: never
: never
🙁 Actual behavior
[1, 1] | [2, 2]
🙂 Expected behavior
[1, 1 | 2] | [2, 1 | 2]
Additional information about the issue
It shouldn't work the way it does now, for several reasons:
- Value is not naked type parameter.
- Using brackets, distributive behaviour must be disabled.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Assessment
This issue has not been assessed yet.