Creating a specification for a type that lacks a specific concluding character

When utilizing TypeScript, you have the ability to create template literal types such as:

type Paragraph = `${string}\n`;

const paragraph: Paragraph = 'foo\n'; // valid
const word: Paragraph = 'foo'; // invalid

But can you define a type that is the opposite? Meaning, a string that does not end with a newline character:

type NotParagraph = `???`;

const paragraph: NotParagraph = 'foo\n'; // invalid
const word: NotParagraph = 'foo'; // valid

Answer №1

Finding a solution can be challenging. I have managed to come up with two approaches, although my expertise in TypeScript is still at the journeyman level. One method that I find more gratifying involves using a do-nothing function to enforce the requirement:

type NoTrailingNewline<T extends string> = T extends `${string}\n` ? never : T;

function noTrailingNewline<T extends string>(str: NoTrailingNewline<T>) {
    return str;
}

const paragraph = noTrailingNewline("foo\n"); // not ok
//                                  ^ Argument of type 'string' is not assignable to parameter of type 'never'.(2345)
const word = noTrailingNewline("foo"); // ok

Playground link

The second method involves unsatisfactory duplication, which may not meet the expectations:

type NoTrailingNewline<T extends string> = T extends `${string}\n` ? never : T;

const paragraph: NoTrailingNewline<"foo\n"> = "foo\n"; // not ok
//    ^ Type 'string' is not assignable to type 'never'.(2322)
const word: NoTrailingNewline<"foo"> = "foo"; // ok

Playground link

Answer №2

While it may be tempting to aim for extreme precision in typing, sometimes having overly precise types can hinder rather than help. Tasks like string concatenation or manipulating substrings become more cumbersome with highly specific types. In such cases, relying on runtime checks might be a more practical approach.

One potential workaround is to define a nominal type (or something similar in Typescript) like this:

type NotParagraph = string & {__noTrailingNewLine: true};

Although this type doesn't have any functional significance, it resembles a string but requires the as keyword for instantiation. This allows you to create functions like a trim function as follows:

const trim = (str: string): NotParagraph => {
  return str.trim() as NotParagraph
}

By using this approach, any function that expects a NotParagraph argument will only accept values returned by the trim function.

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