Search code examples
typescriptmapped-types

How can I create this mapped type to reduce the input to the desired shape?


I have the following State shape and want to define a flattened slice const that has the types of the state properties without needing to explicitly define/reference them again, so I would like a mapped type like MapFlatSlice:

type State = {
  fruit: {
    mango: 'haden' | 'keitt';
    papaya: 'sunrise' | 'strawberry';
  };
  colors: {
    green: 10 | 20 | 30;
  };
  season: {
    nartana: 'april' | 'may' | 'june' | 'july' | 'august';
  };
};

type MapFlatSlice = {
  // ...
};

const slice = {
  fruit: ['mango', 'papaya'],
  colors: ['green'],
  season: ['nartana'],
} as const;

type S = MapFlatSlice<typeof slice>;

Where S should be:

type S = {
  mango: 'haden' | 'keitt';
  papaya: 'sunrise' | 'strawberry';
  green: 10 | 20 | 30;
  nartana: 'april' | 'may' | 'june' | 'july' | 'august';
};

In the above example, slice is used for something like redux's mapStateToProps, like this:

const makeSlice = (s: Slice): (t: MapFlatSlice<typeof s>) => void => {
  // ...
};

So given:

const s1 = makeSlice(slice);

Then s1 would be:

const s1 = (props: {
  mango: "haden" | "keitt";
  papaya: "sunrise" | "strawberry";
  green: 10 | 20 | 30;
  nartana: "april" | "may" | "june" | "july" | "august";
}) => {};

(where the type of props in s1 is the same as S from above)


So I think that MapFlatSlice should be something like...

type MapFlatSlice<S extends { [k in keyof State]?: readonly (keyof State[k])[] }> = {
  [k in keyof S]: {
    [_k in S[k][number]]: ...
  };
};

But I don't know how to "flatten" it, and also it doesn't work to index S[k] with number.


Solution

  • I'd be inclined to approach this as follows:


    Which types are "sliceable"? That is, when you write MapFlatSlice<T>, what are the allowable types for T? I think it's any type T extends Sliceable<T> where Sliceable<T> is defined as:

    type Sliceable<T> =
      { [K in keyof T]: K extends keyof State ? ReadonlyArray<keyof State[K]> : never }
    

    That is, if T is sliceable, each property at key K must be a (possibly read-only) array of keys of State[K]. If K is not a key of State, then there should be no property at key K (so the property is of type never).


    Now that we've got a constraint on the input to MapFlatSlice, what should the output be? I find this easiest to break into two steps. We will take the input type T and "invert" the keys and values, to give us something closer to the shape of what we want which still has enough information in it to get the job done.

    Here it is:

    type InvertKeyValues<T extends Record<keyof T, readonly PropertyKey[]>> =
      { [K in keyof T as T[K][number]]: K };
    

    If we apply that directly to typeof slice, you'll see what we get:

    type Intermediate = InvertKeyValues<typeof slice>;    
    /* type Intermediate = {
        readonly mango: "fruit";
        readonly papaya: "fruit";
        readonly green: "color";
        readonly nartana: "season";
    } */
    

    The keys are the ones you want in your final output, and the values are the relevant keys from State we need to consult.


    Given such an intermediate type as a new input U, we can do the final transformation:

    type DoSlice<U> =
      { -readonly [K in keyof U]: Idx<Idx<State, U[K]>, K> }
        
    

    Recall that U[K] is the key from State, while K is the subkey. So we want to write State[U[K]][K]. But the compiler can't tell that such index accesses are valid, so we use Idx<O, P> in place of O[P], which we define now:


    Let's say we have an object type O and a key type P, but the compiler doesn't know that P is a key of O even though we think it is. That means we can't directly write the indexed access type O[P] without error. Instead, we can define an Idx type alias which checks P before indexing:

    type Idx<O, P> = P extends keyof O ? O[P] : never;
    

    Now, anywhere O[P] yields an error, we can replace it with Idx<O, P>. And so inside DoSlice, State[U[K]][K] becomes Idx<Idx<State, U[K]>, K>.


    And finally, MapFlatSlice<T> is defined in terms of the constraint and the output operation:

    type MapFlatSlice<T extends Sliceable<T>> =
      DoSlice<InvertKeyValues<T>>
    

    So, does it work?

    type S = MapFlatSlice<typeof slice>
    /* type S = {
        mango: "haden" | "keitt";
        papaya: "sunrise" | "strawberry";
        green: 10 | 20 | 30;
        nartana: "april" | "may" | "june" | "july" | "august";
    } */
    

    Looks good. You can verify that other mappings should also work, and that adding incorrect properties to slice should result in compiler warnings.

    Playground link to code