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How do I share a type between a client and server, but make a specific field optional for one and required for the other?
Let's say I have a client/server application with a data structure on the server side:
type User = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber: string;
};
These fields are both non-nullable; all users in this system have a name and a superSecretGovernmentIdNumber, and the server always knows what both are.
On the client, I'd like to be able to use this same type, with non-nullable name, but depending on whether the user you're viewing is yourself or another person, you may or may not be able to see that user's superSecretGovernmentIdNumber. That is, I would like the same type to be this on the client:
type User = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber?: string;
};
There is Partial<T>, which would make everything optional, but I still want name to be required.
Is this expressible in TypeScript? How?
2 answers
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The existing answer is fine, but you can achieve similar results in many ways using some of TypeScript's utility types.
Required<T>
While you cannot use (only) Partial to do this, TypeScript provides the opposite Required as well - so if one of your types requires all properties, you can start by defining the one with some optional ones:
type UserForClients = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber?: string;
};
type UserForServers = Required<UserForClients>;
Partial<T> and (Omit<T, K> or Pick<T, K>)
Going in the other direction, starting with a "base" type and making some properties optional. Partial makes everything optional, but by combining it with parts of the base type that still require some properties, we can "cancel" the optionality:
type UserForServers = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber: string;
};
type UserForClients = Partial<UserForServers> & Omit<UserForServers, "superSecretGovernmentIdNumber">;
// Or, equivalently
type UserForClients = Partial<UserForServers> & Pick<UserForServers, "name">;
Custom Utility types
We can create some utility types of our own to handle these cases if they are frequent:
type WithOptional<T, K extends keyof T> = Partial<T> & Omit<T, K>;
type UserForServer = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber: string;
};
type UserForClient = WithOptional<UserForServer, "superSecretGovermentIdNumber">;
// Or, equivalently
type RequireOnly<T, K extends keyof T> = Partial<T> & Required<Pick<T, K>>;
type UserForServer = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber: string;
};
type UserForClient = RequireOnly<UserForServer, "name">;
// Or, equivalently
type WithRequired<T, K extends keyof T> = T & Required<Pick<T, K>>;
type UserForClient = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber?: string;
};
type UserForServer = WithRequired<UserForClient, "superSecretGovernmentIdNumber">;
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This can be done using conditional types.
I defined these helper types:
enum Role { server, client };
type PossiblyHiddenFromClients<R extends Role, T> =
T | (R extends Role.client ? undefined : never);
When R is server, this type reduces to T (via T | never); when R is client, it is T | undefined.
User can then be defined as:
type User<R extends Role> = {
name: string;
superSecretGovernmentIdNumber: PossiblyHiddenFromClients<R, string>;
};
There are now two types, User<Role.server> representing a full unredacted user, and User<Role.client> representing one that may or may not have information missing. The client should always use the latter; the server uses the former internally and converts to the latter (redacting as required) when returning data to the client.
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