Is it possible to create a typeguard, or something else that accomplishes the same purpose, to check if a variable is a specific interface type in a typescript union?
interface Foo { a:string }
interface Bar { b:string }
(function() {
function doStuff(thing: Foo | Bar) {
if(typeof thing === 'Foo') {
console.log('Foo');
}
else if (typeof thing === 'Bar') {
console.log('Bar');
}
else {
console.log('unknown');
}
}
var thing: Foo = {a:'a'};
doStuff(thing);
})();
typeof
doesn't do this. It always return "string", "number", "boolean", "object", "function", or "undefined".
You can test for object properties with a test like if(thing.a !== undefined) {
or if(thing.hasOwnProperty('a')) {
.
Note that you could make an object that had both a string a
and a string b
, so be aware of that possibility.
Since Typescript 1.6 you can use user-defined type guards:
let isFoo = (object: Foo| Bar): object is Foo => {
return "a" in object;
}
See https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/advanced-types.html#user-defined-type-guards and https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/10485
In TypeScript 2 you can use Discriminated Unions like this:
interface Foo {
kind: "foo";
a:string;
}
interface Bar {
kind: "bar";
b:string;
}
type FooBar = Foo | Bar;
let thing: FooBar;
and then test object using if (thing.kind === "foo")
.
If you only have 2 fields like in the example I would probably go with combined interface as @ryan-cavanaugh mentioned and make both properties optional:
interface FooBar {
a?: string;
b?: string
}
Note that in original example testing the object using if (thing.a !== undefined)
produces error Property 'a' does not exist on type 'Foo | Bar'.
And testing it using if (thing.hasOwnProperty('a'))
doesn't narrow type to Foo
inside the if
statement.
@ryan-cavanaugh is there a better way in TypesScript 2.0 or 2.1?