Nullable types and optional parameters/properties (TypeScript)

An overview of how TypeScript deals with null, undefined and optional parameters/properties

Nullable types

Two special types: null and undefined

• Treated as different from each other, because that's what JavaScript does as well
• By default, assignable to anything, but this can be changed by enabling the --strictNullChecks flag
  • Recommended to enable this, allow type checking to prevent a lot of potential runtime errors

Example without --strictNullChecks:

// everything ok according to compiler

const test1: string = undefined;

const test2: string = null;

const test3: string | undefined = undefined;

const test4: string | undefined = null;

const test5: string | null = undefined;

const test6: string | null = null;

const test7: string | null | undefined = undefined;

const test8: string | null | undefined = null;

Example with --strictNullChecks:

const test1: string = undefined; // error

const test2: string = null; // error

const test3: string | undefined = undefined;

const test4: string | undefined = null; // error

const test5: string | null = undefined; // error

const test6: string | null = null;

const test7: string | null | undefined = undefined;

const test8: string | null | undefined = null;

Optional chaining

(introduced in TypeScript 3.7)

Operator ? that allows to stop evaluation when something is null or undefined

Motivation: accessing instance.prop.otherProp.nextProp where at each level the property may be null or undefined (leading to runtime errors if we fail to check for it)

Example:

let x = instance.prop?.otherProp;

// is equivalent to

let x = instance.prop === null || instance.prop === undefined ? undefined : instance.prop.otherProp;

Note that, if evaluation stops because something is null, the result is still undefined

Non-null assertion operator

Operator ! that allows to let TypeScript know you are sure that a certain value is not null or undefined (useful in situations where the code is too complex for TypeScript to figure this out by itself)

Example (with --strictNullChecks):

function test(str: string | null | undefined) {

const ensureStringDefined = function () {

if (str === null || str === undefined) {

str = "test";

}

}

ensureStringDefined();

console.log(str.toUpperCase()); // error

console.log(str!.toUpperCase()); // ok

}

Optional parameters

If --strictNullChecks is enabled, making a parameter optional automatically adds | undefined to its type

Example without --strictNullChecks:

function test(a: string, b?: string) {

return a;

}

// everything ok according to compiler

test("a");

test("a", undefined);

test("a", null);

Example with --strictNullChecks:

function test(a: string, b?: string) {

return a;

}

test("a");

test("a", undefined);

test("a", null); // error

Note: an optional parameter is not completely the same as a parameter that needs to be provided but can be undefined!

function test2(a: string, b: string | undefined) {

return a;

}

test2("b"); // error because of missing argument, even without --strictNullChecks

test2("b", undefined); // ok

You can use this to force the code using your function to be very explicit about passing in undefined

Optional properties

Example without --strictNullChecks:

class Test {

a: number = 1;

b?: number;

}

// everything ok according to compiler

let test = new Test();

test.a = 12;

test.a = undefined;

test.a = null;

test.b = 12;

test.b = undefined;

test.b = null;

Example with --strictNullChecks:

class Test {

a: number = 1;

b?: number;

}

let test = new Test();

test.a = 12;

test.a = undefined; // error

test.a = null; // error

test.b = 12;

test.b = undefined;

test.b = null; // error

Resources

• Advanced Types

View this note on GitHub

Last modified: 2021-01-30