Understanding the significance of the term "this" in Typescript when employed as a function parameter

I came across a piece of TypeScript code where the keyword "this" is used as a parameter of a function. I'm curious to know the significance of this usage and why it is implemented like this in the following context: "brushended(this: SVGGElement) {".

function brushended(this: SVGGElement) {
  let e = <D3BrushEvent<any>>d3.event;
  let s: BrushSelection = e.selection;
  if (!s) {
    if (!idleTimeout) {
      self.ngZone.runOutsideAngular(() => {
        idleTimeout = window.setTimeout(idled, idleDelay);
      });
      return idleTimeout;
    }
    x.domain(x0);
    y.domain(y0);
  } else {
    x.domain([s[0][0], s[1][0]].map(x.invert, x));
    y.domain([s[1][1], s[0][1]].map(y.invert, y));
    d3Svg.select<SVGGElement>('.brush').call(brush.move, null);
  }
  zoom();
}

Answer №1

In essence;

It serves as a tool for TypeScript to perform static analysis when utilizing this.xxx within a function, preventing the execution of a function that requires a specific type on the this pointer. This concept does not have an equivalent representation in JavaScript.

Explained further:

In JavaScript, the value of this can vary depending on how a function is invoked. For instance, the this pointer can be specified using func.apply.

https://developer.mozilla.org/nl/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function/apply

For instance, consider this TypeScript snippet:

function foo(this: string, n: number){
    console.log(this, n);
}

In this example, I define that the function foo should always be executed with a string on the this pointer. Therefore, simply calling it will result in a compiler error:

foo(42); // Error: The 'this' context of type 'void' is not assignable to the method's 'this' of type 'string'.

This feature proves particularly beneficial when dealing with frameworks that leverage the "feature" of the this pointer in JavaScript, such as operators on an Observable in rxjs http://reactivex.io/rxjs/.

For additional details: https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/functions.html#this-parameters

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