Filter an array in Typescript

I had a typed array and wanted to remove elements with an empty value. In vanilla Javascript that's easy enough, but instead of regular strings I was using string unions to restrict the available options.

1type Property = {
2  measurements: Measurement[]
3}
4
5type Measurement = {
6  type: MeasurementType
7  value: number
8  unit: MeasurementUnit
9}
10
11type MeasurementType =
12  | "LOT_DEPTH"
13  | "LOT_AREA"
14  | "LIVING_AREA"
15
16type MeasurementUnit =
17  | "SQUARE_FEET"
18  | "SQUARE_METERS"
19  | "FEET"
20  | "METERS"
21
22function getProperty(input): Property {
23  return {
24    measurements: [
25      {
26        type: "LOT_DEPTH",
27        value: input.lotDepth.value,
28        unit: input.lotDepth.unit,
29      },
30      {
31        type: "LOT_AREA",
32        value: input.lotArea.value,
33        unit: input.lotArea.unit,
34      },
35      {
36        type: "LIVING_AREA",
37        value: input.livingArea.value,
38        unit: input.livingArea.unit,
39      },
40    ].filter((measurement) => measurement.value),
41  }
42}
43

Typescript was able to correctly infer the type of the measurements array, but as soon as I added the filter it broke. Why? Filter returns a regular array of regular objects, and the type information about the string unions was lost

Type 'string' is not assignable to type 'MeasurementName'

Solutions

The solution I ended up going with was to use type predicates to tell filter which type to use. I found out afterward that TS can infer correctly without the type predicate as long as it's split with an intermediate variable.

Type predicates

.filter((measurement): measurement is Measurement  => measurement.value)

Type predicates (JSDoc)

.filter(/** @type function(*): measurement is Measurement */ (measurement) => measurement.value)

Intermediate variable (JSDoc)

function getProperty(input): Property {
  /** @type {Measurement[]} */
  const measurements = [
    {
      type: "LOT_DEPTH",
      value: input.lotDepth.value,
      unit: input.lotDepth.unit,
    },
    {
      type: "LOT_AREA",
      value: input.lotArea.value,
      unit: input.lotArea.unit,
    },
    {
      type: "LIVING_AREA",
      value: input.livingArea.value,
      unit: input.livingArea.unit,
    },
  ]
  return {
    measurements: measurements.filter(
      (measurement) => measurement.value,
    ),
  }
}

Filter an array in Typescript

Solutions

Type predicates

Type predicates (JSDoc)

Intermediate variable (JSDoc)

Hi, I'm Jacob