microsoft / microsoft/TypeScript

Property lookups on arguments to type parameters constrained by string index signatures can violate other constraints because undefined is included for optional properties

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#63,709 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Cursed? Domain: Indexed Access Types Possible Improvement
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Description

### 🔎 Search Terms

index signature, indexed types, mapped types, lookup types, optional properties, generic constraints

### 🕗 Version & Regression Information

- It's only been possible to assign optional properties to string index signature since version 4.2 (see #41921)
- The bug has existed ever since

### ⏯ Playground Link

https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?#code/C4TwDgpgBAkgznArhAPAFShAHsCA7AEzigG8oBtLALijmACcBLPAcwF0a9EBbAIwnoBuKAF8AfFAC8UAHI8BjAMbpyAawggA9gDMoaNmMEBYAFChIs+U2UzMOfEShc+AidJnGz4aAA0psBGQUMgBDAH5OHn56UUMgA

### 💻 Code

```ts
type Issue = Numeric;
type Numeric = N;
type X = Issue<{ a?: 0 }>;
```

### 🙁 Actual behavior

During the evaluation of `X`, `T[keyof T]` becomes `{ a?: 0 }['a']`, which in turn is evaluated as `0 | undefined` because `a` is an optional property. Therefore, the argument passed to `Numeric` is `0 | undefined`. This type doesn't satisfy the `extends number` constraint and therefore should not be permitted. However, the compiler doesn't report any errors.

### 🙂 Expected behavior

An error is reported on line 1, saying that the `N extends number` constraint might be violated.

### Additional information about the issue

The same happens with the mapped type `{ [x in string]: number; }`.

The problem only exists for string index signatures: for both `{ [x: number]: number; }` and `{ [x: symbol]: number; }`, there are errors reported.

#41921 might've been a mistake. Perhaps a new tsconfig option could be introduced that would revert the change so that the rule for assignment of optional properties to string index signatures is more strict and consistent to how number / symbol index signatures are handled again? With `"exactOptionalPropertyTypes": true` at least, the original issue #41418 should not cause trouble anymore. Actually, I think that the introduction of `exactOptionalPropertyTypes` is exactly how the issue should have been solved back then. Unfortunately, the setting was only introduced later (in version 4.4).

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Reproduce the case in the linked TypeScript Playground, then trace evaluation of Issue, T[keyof T], and Numeric in the compiler's type-checking code. Compare string, number, and symbol index signatures and the mapped-type variant; done when the string-signature cases reject 0 | undefined with the expected constraint diagnostic without regressing the existing cases.

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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