Xtykutl

I have a function which can take any object literal so long as all of the values in the object are strings:

function getFirstLetters(obj: { [key: string]: string }): string {

    return Object.keys(obj).map(key => obj[key][0]);

}

This works well for any indexed type, the problem arises when I try to use non-indexed objects:

interface SomeData {

    user: string;

    loc: string;

}



const someData: SomeData = {

    user: "coolGuy42",

    loc: "New York",

};



function getFirstLetters(obj: { [key: string]: string }): string {

    return Object.keys(obj).map(key => obj[key][0]);

}



// Argument of type 'SomeData' is not

// assignable to parameter of type

// '{ [key: string]: string; }'.

// Index signature is missing in type 'SomeData'.

getFirstLetters(someData);

The error is straightforward - I have specifically requested that the function validate obj based on it having an index signature, NOT on the type of its values alone.

Is there any way to make my function work with all objects with a uniform value type without asking anyone who uses it to include an index signature in their interface?

You can make the function generic and require the input parameter to be any type whose known properties are all strings:

function getFirstLetters<T extends Record<keyof T, string>>(obj: T): string {

  return Object.keys(obj).map(key => obj[key][0]); // error

}

But the compiler (rightly) complains that it doesn't know what obj[key] might be. After all, the known keys of T are string-valued, but types in TypeScript are not exact. A value of type {foo: string} might have any number of extra properties. We know that its foo property is a string, but for all we know it might have a bar property that's a number.

If you are sure that only exact-like types will be passed to getFirstLetters, then you can use a type assertion to convince the compiler that you are doing something safe:

function getFirstLetters<T extends Record<keyof T, string>>(obj: T): string {

  // no error now

  return (Object.keys(obj) as (Array<keyof T>)).map(key => obj[key][0]);

}

And it should work as you expect when you call it:

getFirstLetters(someData); // no error

And it will reject values with known properties whose values are not strings:

getFirstLetters({a: "a", b: 23}); // error on b, not a string

But again, keep in mind that you can pass it some things with unknown non-string properties that will cause problems at runtime:

const whoopsie: SomeData = Object.assign({}, someData, { oops: null });

// whoopsie is a SomeData with an extra "oops" property that the 

// compiler has explicitly forgotten about



getFirstLetters(whoopsie); // no compiler error

// but calls null[0] at runtime and explodes!! 💥

It's up to you if you care about those edge cases and how to deal with them if so. Anyway, hope that helps. Good luck!