ts-is-present

ts-is-present

The ts-is-present package provides common functions to let you filter out the null or undefined values from arrays in your code AND end up with the types that you expect.

Short explanation

The following code feels like it should type check, but it does not:

It fails because the TypeScript type checker can't intuit that the lambda function eliminates the undefined values:

This library provides the three isPresent, isDefined and isFilled functions to solve this issue in the way that you would expect the filter function to work:

Use this library to dramatically simplify your TypeScript code and get the full power of your types.

Deeper Explanation

An example of the fundamental problem can be found in the TypeScript bug tracker but we will try and explain it again simply here.

Firstly, TypeScript can not look at the following lambda function x => x !== undefined and derive the type (t: T | undefined): t is T. Instead, the best it can do is to derive the type: (t: any): boolean.

Secondly, TypeScript has two type definitions for the filter function. They are:

// Definition 1
filter<S extends T>(callbackfn: (value: T, index: number, array: T[]) => value is S, thisArg?: any): S[];
    
// Definition 2
filter(callbackfn: (value: T, index: number, array: T[]) => unknown, thisArg?: any): T[];

If we look at those types carefully they differ in an interesting way.

The second definition expects a callback function where the return type of that callback is unknown; this will be treated as a truthy value when the filtering is performed. Most importantly, in this function, if you give it an Array<T> then you will get back an Array<T>; even if the lambda that you provided "proves" that the type could be restricted further.

The first definition, however, expects that the return type of the callback will be value is S where the generic definition of S extends T applies. This means that, if you give this version of filter an Array<T> and a function that can tell if a particular T is actually of the more restrictive type S then it will give you back an Array<S>. This is the critical feature of the filter type definitions that lets the functions defined in this library refine the types inside a filter.

In short, when you write the following code the second filter definition is used:

results.filter(x => x !== undefined)

However, when you use this library the first filter definition is used:

results.filter(isDefined)

That is why this library helps you derive the types you expect.