Effective TypeScript, 2nd Edition

Book description

TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript with the potential to solve many of the headaches for which JavaScript is famous. But TypeScript has a learning curve of its own, and understanding how to use it effectively takes time and practice. Using the format popularized by Effective C++ and Effective Java (both Addison-Wesley), this practical book features 83 items that give specific advice on what to do and what not to do, and how to think about the language.

Author Dan Vanderkam shows you how to apply each item's advice through concrete examples. This book will help you advance from a beginning or intermediate user familiar with TypeScript basics to an expert who knows how to use the language well.

Updated for TypeScript 5, this second edition includes two new chapters on type-level programming and TypeScript recipes.

  • Learn the nuts and bolts of TypeScript's type system
  • Use type inference to get full safety with a minimum of type annotations
  • Design types to make your code safer and more understandable
  • Model complex APIs using generic types and type-level programming
  • Understand how dependencies and type declaration files work in TypeScript
  • Successfully migrate your JavaScript code base to TypeScript

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Table of contents

  1. Preface to the Second Edition
    1. Who This Book Is For
    2. Why I Wrote This Book
    3. How This Book Is Organized
    4. Conventions in TypeScript Code Samples
    5. Typographical Conventions Used in This Book
    6. Using Code Examples
    7. O’Reilly Online Learning
    8. How to Contact Us
    9. Acknowledgments
  2. Preface to the First Edition (2019)
    1. Acknowledgments to the First Edition
  3. 1. Getting to Know TypeScript
    1. Item 1: Understand the Relationship Between TypeScript and JavaScript
    2. Item 2: Know Which TypeScript Options You’re Using
    3. Item 3: Understand That Code Generation Is Independent of Types
    4. Item 4: Get Comfortable with Structural Typing
    5. Item 5: Limit Use of the any Type
  4. 2. TypeScript’s Type System
    1. Item 6: Use Your Editor to Interrogate and Explore the Type System
    2. Item 7: Think of Types as Sets of Values
    3. Item 8: Know How to Tell Whether a Symbol Is in the Type Space or Value Space
    4. Item 9: Prefer Type Annotations to Type Assertions
    5. Item 10: Avoid Object Wrapper Types (String, Number, Boolean, Symbol, BigInt)
    6. Item 11: Distinguish Excess Property Checking from Type Checking
    7. Item 12: Apply Types to Entire Function Expressions When Possible
    8. Item 13: Know the Differences Between type and interface
    9. Item 14: Use readonly to Avoid Errors Associated with Mutation
    10. Item 15: Use Type Operations and Generic Types to Avoid Repeating Yourself
    11. Item 16: Prefer More Precise Alternatives to Index Signatures
    12. Item 17: Avoid Numeric Index Signatures
  5. 3. Type Inference and Control Flow Analysis
    1. Item 18: Avoid Cluttering Your Code with Inferable Types
    2. Item 19: Use Different Variables for Different Types
    3. Item 20: Understand How a Variable Gets Its Type
    4. Item 21: Create Objects All at Once
    5. Item 22: Understand Type Narrowing
    6. Item 23: Be Consistent in Your Use of Aliases
    7. Item 24: Understand How Context Is Used in Type Inference
    8. Item 25: Understand Evolving Types
    9. Item 26: Use Functional Constructs and Libraries to Help Types Flow
    10. Item 27: Use async Functions Instead of Callbacks to Improve Type Flow
    11. Item 28: Use Classes and Currying to Create New Inference Sites
  6. 4. Type Design
    1. Item 29: Prefer Types That Always Represent Valid States
    2. Item 30: Be Liberal in What You Accept and Strict in What You Produce
    3. Item 31: Don’t Repeat Type Information in Documentation
    4. Item 32: Avoid Including null or undefined in Type Aliases
    5. Item 33: Push Null Values to the Perimeter of Your Types
    6. Item 34: Prefer Unions of Interfaces to Interfaces with Unions
    7. Item 35: Prefer More Precise Alternatives to String Types
    8. Item 36: Use a Distinct Type for Special Values
    9. Item 37: Limit the Use of Optional Properties
    10. Item 38: Avoid Repeated Parameters of the Same Type
    11. Item 39: Prefer Unifying Types to Modeling Differences
    12. Item 40: Prefer Imprecise Types to Inaccurate Types
    13. Item 41: Name Types Using the Language of Your Problem Domain
    14. Item 42: Avoid Types Based on Anecdotal Data
  7. 5. Unsoundness and the any Type
    1. Item 43: Use the Narrowest Possible Scope for any Types
    2. Item 44: Prefer More Precise Variants of any to Plain any
    3. Item 45: Hide Unsafe Type Assertions in Well-Typed Functions
    4. Item 46: Use unknown Instead of any for Values with an Unknown Type
    5. Item 47: Prefer Type-Safe Approaches to Monkey Patching
    6. Item 48: Avoid Soundness Traps
    7. Item 49: Track Your Type Coverage to Prevent Regressions in Type Safety
  8. 6. Generics and Type-Level Programming
    1. Item 50: Think of Generics as Functions Between Types
    2. Item 51: Avoid Unnecessary Type Parameters
    3. Item 52: Prefer Conditional Types to Overload Signatures
    4. Item 53: Know How to Control the Distribution of Unions over Conditional Types
    5. Item 54: Use Template Literal Types to Model DSLs and Relationships Between Strings
    6. Item 55: Write Tests for Your Types
    7. Item 56: Pay Attention to How Types Display
    8. Item 57: Prefer Tail-Recursive Generic Types
    9. Item 58: Consider Codegen as an Alternative to Complex Types
  9. 7. TypeScript Recipes
    1. Item 59: Use Never Types to Perform Exhaustiveness Checking
    2. Item 60: Know How to Iterate Over Objects
    3. Item 61: Use Record Types to Keep Values in Sync
    4. Item 62: Use Rest Parameters and Tuple Types to Model Variadic Functions
    5. Item 63: Use Optional Never Properties to Model Exclusive Or
    6. Item 64: Consider Brands for Nominal Typing
  10. 8. Type Declarations and @types
    1. Item 65: Put TypeScript and @types in devDependencies
    2. Item 66: Understand the Three Versions Involved in Type Declarations
    3. Item 67: Export All Types That Appear in Public APIs
    4. Item 68: Use TSDoc for API Comments
    5. Item 69: Provide a Type for this in Callbacks if It’s Part of Their API
    6. Item 70: Mirror Types to Sever Dependencies
    7. Item 71: Use Module Augmentation to Improve Types
  11. 9. Writing and Running Your Code
    1. Item 72: Prefer ECMAScript Features to TypeScript Features
    2. Item 73: Use Source Maps to Debug TypeScript
    3. Item 74: Know How to Reconstruct Types at Runtime
    4. Item 75: Understand the DOM Hierarchy
    5. Item 76: Create an Accurate Model of Your Environment
    6. Item 77: Understand the Relationship Between Type Checking and Unit Testing
    7. Item 78: Pay Attention to Compiler Performance
  12. 10. Modernization and Migration
    1. Item 79: Write Modern JavaScript
    2. Item 80: Use @ts-check and JSDoc to Experiment with TypeScript
    3. Item 81: Use allowJs to Mix TypeScript and JavaScript
    4. Item 82: Convert Module by Module Up Your Dependency Graph
    5. Item 83: Don’t Consider Migration Complete Until You Enable noImplicitAny
  13. Appendix. Item Mapping Between First and Second Editions
  14. Index
  15. About the Author

Product information

  • Title: Effective TypeScript, 2nd Edition
  • Author(s): Dan Vanderkam
  • Release date: April 2024
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781098155063