typescript-advanced-types

What this skill does

# TypeScript Advanced Types

Comprehensive guidance for mastering TypeScript's advanced type system including generics, conditional types, mapped types, template literal types, and utility types for building robust, type-safe applications.

## When to Use This Skill

- Building type-safe libraries or frameworks
- Creating reusable generic components
- Implementing complex type inference logic
- Designing type-safe API clients
- Building form validation systems
- Creating strongly-typed configuration objects
- Implementing type-safe state management
- Migrating JavaScript codebases to TypeScript

## Core Concepts

### 1. Generics

**Purpose:** Create reusable, type-flexible components while maintaining type safety.

**Basic Generic Function:**

```typescript
function identity<T>(value: T): T {
  return value;
}

const num = identity<number>(42); // Type: number
const str = identity<string>("hello"); // Type: string
const auto = identity(true); // Type inferred: boolean
```

**Generic Constraints:**

```typescript
interface HasLength {
  length: number;
}

function logLength<T extends HasLength>(item: T): T {
  console.log(item.length);
  return item;
}

logLength("hello"); // OK: string has length
logLength([1, 2, 3]); // OK: array has length
logLength({ length: 10 }); // OK: object has length
// logLength(42);             // Error: number has no length
```

**Multiple Type Parameters:**

```typescript
function merge<T, U>(obj1: T, obj2: U): T & U {
  return { ...obj1, ...obj2 };
}

const merged = merge({ name: "John" }, { age: 30 });
// Type: { name: string } & { age: number }
```

### 2. Conditional Types

**Purpose:** Create types that depend on conditions, enabling sophisticated type logic.

**Basic Conditional Type:**

```typescript
type IsString<T> = T extends string ? true : false;

type A = IsString<string>; // true
type B = IsString<number>; // false
```

**Extracting Return Types:**

```typescript
type ReturnType<T> = T extends (...args: any[]) => infer R ? R : never;

function getUser() {
  return { id: 1, name: "John" };
}

type User = ReturnType<typeof getUser>;
// Type: { id: number; name: string; }
```

**Distributive Conditional Types:**

```typescript
type ToArray<T> = T extends any ? T[] : never;

type StrOrNumArray = ToArray<string | number>;
// Type: string[] | number[]
```

**Nested Conditions:**

```typescript
type TypeName<T> = T extends string
  ? "string"
  : T extends number
    ? "number"
    : T extends boolean
      ? "boolean"
      : T extends undefined
        ? "undefined"
        : T extends Function
          ? "function"
          : "object";

type T1 = TypeName<string>; // "string"
type T2 = TypeName<() => void>; // "function"
```

### 3. Mapped Types

**Purpose:** Transform existing types by iterating over their properties.

**Basic Mapped Type:**

```typescript
type Readonly<T> = {
  readonly [P in keyof T]: T[P];
};

interface User {
  id: number;
  name: string;
}

type ReadonlyUser = Readonly<User>;
// Type: { readonly id: number; readonly name: string; }
```

**Optional Properties:**

```typescript
type Partial<T> = {
  [P in keyof T]?: T[P];
};

type PartialUser = Partial<User>;
// Type: { id?: number; name?: string; }
```

**Key Remapping:**

```typescript
type Getters<T> = {
  [K in keyof T as `get${Capitalize<string & K>}`]: () => T[K];
};

interface Person {
  name: string;
  age: number;
}

type PersonGetters = Getters<Person>;
// Type: { getName: () => string; getAge: () => number; }
```

**Filtering Properties:**

```typescript
type PickByType<T, U> = {
  [K in keyof T as T[K] extends U ? K : never]: T[K];
};

interface Mixed {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  age: number;
  active: boolean;
}

type OnlyNumbers = PickByType<Mixed, number>;
// Type: { id: number; age: number; }
```

### 4. Template Literal Types

**Purpose:** Create string-based types with pattern matching and transformation.

**Basic Template Literal:**

```typescript
type EventName = "click" | "focus" | "blur";
type EventHandler = `on${Capitalize<EventName>}`;
// Type: "onClick" | "onFocus" | "onBlur"
```

**String Manipulation:**

```typescript
type UppercaseGreeting = Uppercase<"hello">; // "HELLO"
type LowercaseGreeting = Lowercase<"HELLO">; // "hello"
type CapitalizedName = Capitalize<"john">; // "John"
type UncapitalizedName = Uncapitalize<"John">; // "john"
```

**Path Building:**

```typescript
type Path<T> = T extends object
  ? {
      [K in keyof T]: K extends string ? `${K}` | `${K}.${Path<T[K]>}` : never;
    }[keyof T]
  : never;

interface Config {
  server: {
    host: string;
    port: number;
  };
  database: {
    url: string;
  };
}

type ConfigPath = Path<Config>;
// Type: "server" | "database" | "server.host" | "server.port" | "database.url"
```

### 5. Utility Types

**Built-in Utility Types:**

```typescript
// Partial<T> - Make all properties optional
type PartialUser = Partial<User>;

// Required<T> - Make all properties required
type RequiredUser = Required<PartialUser>;

// Readonly<T> - Make all properties readonly
type ReadonlyUser = Readonly<User>;

// Pick<T, K> - Select specific properties
type UserName = Pick<User, "name" | "email">;

// Omit<T, K> - Remove specific properties
type UserWithoutPassword = Omit<User, "password">;

// Exclude<T, U> - Exclude types from union
type T1 = Exclude<"a" | "b" | "c", "a">; // "b" | "c"

// Extract<T, U> - Extract types from union
type T2 = Extract<"a" | "b" | "c", "a" | "b">; // "a" | "b"

// NonNullable<T> - Exclude null and undefined
type T3 = NonNullable<string | null | undefined>; // string

// Record<K, T> - Create object type with keys K and values T
type PageInfo = Record<"home" | "about", { title: string }>;
```

## Advanced Patterns

### Pattern 1: Type-Safe Event Emitter

```typescript
type EventMap = {
  "user:created": { id: string; name: string };
  "user:updated": { id: string };
  "user:deleted": { id: string };
};

class TypedEventEmitter<T extends Record<string, any>> {
  private listeners: {
    [K in keyof T]?: Array<(data: T[K]) => void>;
  } = {};

  on<K extends keyof T>(event: K, callback: (data: T[K]) => void): void {
    if (!this.listeners[event]) {
      this.listeners[event] = [];
    }
    this.listeners[event]!.push(callback);
  }

  emit<K extends keyof T>(event: K, data: T[K]): void {
    const callbacks = this.listeners[event];
    if (callbacks) {
      callbacks.forEach((callback) => callback(data));
    }
  }
}

const emitter = new TypedEventEmitter<EventMap>();

emitter.on("user:created", (data) => {
  console.log(data.id, data.name); // Type-safe!
});

emitter.emit("user:created", { id: "1", name: "John" });
// emitter.emit("user:created", { id: "1" });  // Error: missing 'name'
```

### Pattern 2: Type-Safe API Client

```typescript
type HTTPMethod = "GET" | "POST" | "PUT" | "DELETE";

type EndpointConfig = {
  "/users": {
    GET: { response: User[] };
    POST: { body: { name: string; email: string }; response: User };
  };
  "/users/:id": {
    GET: { params: { id: string }; response: User };
    PUT: { params: { id: string }; body: Partial<User>; response: User };
    DELETE: { params: { id: string }; response: void };
  };
};

type ExtractParams<T> = T extends { params: infer P } ? P : never;
type ExtractBody<T> = T extends { body: infer B } ? B : never;
type ExtractResponse<T> = T extends { response: infer R } ? R : never;

class APIClient<Config extends Record<string, Record<HTTPMethod, any>>> {
  async request<Path extends keyof Config, Method extends keyof Config[Path]>(
    path: Path,
    method: Method,
    ...[options]: ExtractParams<Config[Path][Method]> extends never
      ? ExtractBody<Config[Path][Method]> extends never
        ? []
        : [{ body: ExtractBody<Config[Path][Method]> }]
      : [
          {
            params: ExtractParams<Config[Path][Method]>;
            body?: ExtractBody<Config[Path][Method]>;
          },
        ]
  ): Promise<ExtractResponse<Config[Path][Method]>> {
    // Imple