The TypeScript compiler translates TS code into JavaScript. When TSC is set to es5 mode, it may have trouble finding the declaration for Symbol
, causing compile-time errors that do not require a polyfill for runtime.
To fix this issue, you can switch your compilation target to es6
where Symbol
is included in the standard library. Alternatively, you can manually add the definition (source).
declare class Symbol {
/** Returns a string representation of an object. */
toString(): string;
/** Returns the primitive value of the specified object. */
valueOf(): Object;
/**
* Returns a new unique Symbol value.
* @param description Description of the new Symbol object.
*/
constructor(description?: string);
/**
* Returns a Symbol object from the global symbol registry matching the given key if found.
* Otherwise, returns a new symbol with this key.
* @param key key to search for.
*/
static for(key: string): Symbol;
/**
* Returns a key from the global symbol registry matching the given Symbol if found.
* Otherwise, returns a undefined.
* @param sym Symbol to find the key for.
*/
static keyFor(sym: Symbol): string;
}
// Well-known Symbols
declare module Symbol {
/**
* A method that determines if a constructor object recognizes an object as one of the
* constructor’s instances.Called by the semantics of the instanceof operator.
*/
const hasInstance: Symbol;
/**
* A Boolean value that if true indicates that an object should be flatten to its array
* elements by Array.prototype.concat.
*/
const isConcatSpreadable: Symbol;
/**
* A Boolean value that if true indicates that an object may be used as a regular expression.
*/
const isRegExp: Symbol;
/**
* A method that returns the default iterator for an object.Called by the semantics of the
* for-of statement.
*/
const iterator: Symbol;
/**
* A method that converts an object to a corresponding primitive value.Called by the
* ToPrimitive abstract operation.
*/
const toPrimitive: Symbol;
/**
* A String value that is used in the creation of the default string description of an object.
* Called by the built- in method Object.prototype.toString.
*/
const toStringTag: Symbol;
/**
* An Object whose own property names are property names that are excluded from the with
* environment bindings of the associated objects.
*/
const unscopables: Symbol;
}
Note:
Some type checking features do not apply to symbol
. For instance, declaring a property computed to symbol on an interface would not work.