Can the lib property in tsconfig.json override the target property?

Question

Just starting out with Typescript, I have a query regarding the lib and target properties. Below is my tsconfig.json file:

{
 "compilerOptions": {
 "target": "es5",
 "outDir": "./dist",
 "rootDir": "./src",
 "noEmitOnError": true,
 }
}

//index.ts
console.log("Hello World");

Everything works flawlessly,

But when I wanted to use ES6 Map(), I updated the configuration as follows:

{
 "compilerOptions": {
 "target": "es5",
 "outDir": "./dist",
 "rootDir": "./src",
 "noEmitOnError": true,
 "lib": ["es6"]
 }
}

This change resulted in an error:

Cannot find name 'console'

My question is:

Q1 - Doesn't ES5 and ES6 already include the DOM API?

Q2 - If neither ES5 nor ES6 includes the DOM API, why did it work initially without the lib property being set?

Answer 1

Answer №1

When using TypeScript, the default values for lib are determined by the target you have set.

You can find documentation detailing these default values on the compiler options page
_{(to access it directly, search for --lib)}

As mentioned in another answer, if you manually specify the lib option, remember to include necessary defaults:

"lib": ["dom", "es6"]

If you're curious about the content of these libraries, you can explore the files themselves within the TypeScript repository under the lib folder. For instance, ScriptHost is documented in lib.scripthost.d.ts

Answer 2

When using TypeScript, the default values for lib are determined by the target you have set.

You can find documentation detailing these default values on the compiler options page
_{(to access it directly, search for --lib)}

As mentioned in another answer, if you manually specify the lib option, remember to include necessary defaults:

"lib": ["dom", "es6"]

If you're curious about the content of these libraries, you can explore the files themselves within the TypeScript repository under the lib folder. For instance, ScriptHost is documented in lib.scripthost.d.ts

Answer 3

Make sure to include the dom library in your project setup - you can check out additional libraries here:

"lib": ["dom", "es6"]

Answer 4

Make sure to include the dom library in your project setup - you can check out additional libraries here:

"lib": ["dom", "es6"]