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Possible to extend types in Typescript?


Say I have the following type:

type Event = {
   name: string;
   dateCreated: string;
   type: string;
}

I now want to extend this type, i.e.

type UserEvent extends Event = {
   UserId: string; 
}

This doesn't work. How can I do this?


Solution

  • The keyword extends can be used for interfaces and classes only.

    If you just want to declare a type that has additional properties, you can use intersection type:

    type UserEvent = Event & {UserId: string}
    

    UPDATE for TypeScript 2.2, it's now possible to have an interface that extends object-like type, if the type satisfies some restrictions:

    type Event = {
       name: string;
       dateCreated: string;
       type: string;
    }
    
    interface UserEvent extends Event {
       UserId: string; 
    }
    

    It does not work the other way round - UserEvent must be declared as interface, not a type if you want to use extends syntax.

    And it's still impossible to use extend with arbitrary types - for example, it does not work if Event is a type parameter without any constraints.