Typed 'this' in object literal methods #14141

ahejlsberg · 2017-02-17T01:53:36Z

With this PR we strongly type this in methods of object literals and provide a facility for controlling the type of this through contextual typing. The new behavior is only enabled in --noImplicitThis mode.

The type of the expression this in a method of an object literal is now determined as follows:

If the method has an explicitly declared this parameter, this has the type of that parameter.
Otherwise, if the method is contextually typed by a signature with a this parameter, this has the type of that parameter.
Otherwise, if --noImplicitThis is enabled and the containing object literal has a contextual type that includes a ThisType<T>, this has type T.
Otherwise, if --noImplicitThis is enabled and the containing object literal has a contextual type that doesn't include a ThisType<T>, this has the contextual type.
Otherwise, if --noImplicitThis is enabled this has the type of the containing object literal.
Otherwise, this has type any.

Some examples:

// Compile with --noImplicitThis

type Point = {
    x: number;
    y: number;
    moveBy(dx: number, dy: number): void;
}

let p: Point = {
    x: 10,
    y: 20,
    moveBy(dx, dy) {
        this.x += dx;  // this has type Point
        this.y += dy;  // this has type Point
    }
}

let foo = {
    x: "hello",
    f(n: number) {
        this;  // { x: string, f(n: number): void }
    },
}

let bar = {
    x: "hello",
    f(this: { message: string }) {
        this;  // { message: string }
    },
}

In a similar manner, when --noImplicitThis is enabled and a function expression is assigned to a target of the form obj.xxx or obj[xxx], the contextual type for this in the function expression is obj:

// Compile with --noImplicitThis

obj.f = function(n) {
    return this.x - n;  // 'this' has same type as 'obj'
}

obj['f'] = function(n) {
    return this.x - n;  // 'this' has same type as 'obj'
}

In cases where an API produces a this value by transforming its arguments, a new ThisType<T> marker interface can be used to contextually indicate the transformed type. Specifically, when the contextual type for an object literal is ThisType<T> or an intersection including ThisType<T>, the type of this within methods of the object literal is T.

// Compile with --noImplicitThis

type ObjectDescriptor<D, M> = {
    data?: D;
    methods?: M & ThisType<D & M>;  // Type of 'this' in methods is D & M
}

function makeObject<D, M>(desc: ObjectDescriptor<D, M>): D & M {
    let data: object = desc.data || {};
    let methods: object = desc.methods || {};
    return { ...data, ...methods } as D & M;
}

let obj = makeObject({
    data: { x: 0, y: 0 },
    methods: {
        moveBy(dx: number, dy: number) {
            this.x += dx;  // Strongly typed this
            this.y += dy;  // Strongly typed this
        }
    }
});

obj.x = 10;
obj.y = 20;
obj.moveBy(5, 5);

In the example above, the methods object in the argument to makeObject has a contextual type that includes ThisType<D & M> and therefore the type of this in methods within the methods object is { x: number, y: number } & { moveBy(dx: number, dy: number): number }. Notice how the type of the methods property simultaneously is an inference target and a source for the this type in methods.

The ThisType<T> marker interface is simply an empty interface declared in lib.d.ts. Beyond being recognized in the contextual type of an object literal, the interface acts like any empty interface.

Patterns similar to the above are used in several frameworks, including for example Vue and Ember. Using ThisType<T> we can now more accurately describe those frameworks.

Supercedes #8382. We revoked that PR because it always made the type of this in object literal methods be the type of the object literal. We now make that the default behavior, but allow the default to be overridden using a ThisType<T> contextual type.

…...)'

ahejlsberg · 2017-02-17T15:05:13Z

Latest commit adds contextual this type in assignments of the form obj.xxx = function(...) and obj[xxx] = function(...).

ahejlsberg · 2017-02-17T16:51:01Z

The one issue that remains for discussion here is whether the strongly typed this behavior should always be in effect or only be in effect in --noImplicitThis mode. It is technically a breaking change, but it also provides a better authoring experience (statement completion for this) and catches legitimate bugs.

sandersn

I like this change.

Still need tests
@bradenhs points out that the contextual typing code only applies to functions and object literal methods. It should apply to object literal getters/setters as well.
I ran RWC to see what breaks. I found several good breaks, a few breaks that require a d.ts update with ThisType (Object.defineProperty, knockout and react), and a couple of places that show that this needs to be the intersection of the object literal type and the parameter type.

sandersn · 2017-02-17T16:48:55Z

src/compiler/checker.ts

+        }
+
+        function getThisTypeFromContextualType(type: Type): Type {
+            return applyToContextualType(type, t => {


shouldn't applyToContextualType just be named mapType and replace mapType? It doesn't do anything specific to contextual types that I could see, and it's better than the current mapType because it skips return values of undefined. #Resolved

Yes, that makes sense.

sandersn · 2017-02-17T17:01:18Z

tests/baselines/reference/fixSignatureCaching.errors.txt

@@ -41,19 +41,51 @@ tests/cases/conformance/fixSignatureCaching.ts(639,38): error TS2304: Cannot fin
 tests/cases/conformance/fixSignatureCaching.ts(640,13): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'window'.
 tests/cases/conformance/fixSignatureCaching.ts(641,13): error TS2304: Cannot find name 'window'.
 tests/cases/conformance/fixSignatureCaching.ts(704,18): error TS2339: Property 'prepareDetectionCache' does not exist on type '{}'.
+tests/cases/conformance/fixSignatureCaching.ts(704,45): error TS2339: Property '_cache' does not exist on type '{ constructor: (userAgent: any, maxPhoneWidth: any) => void; mobile: () => any; phone: () => any; tablet: () => any; userAgent: () => any; userAgents: () => any; os: () => any; version: (key: any) => any; versionStr: (key: any) => any; is: (key: any) => any; match: (pattern: any) => any; isPhoneSized: (maxPhoneWidth: any) => any; mobileGrade: () => any; }'.


The purpose of this test isn't obvious without following the pointer back to issue #10697. Can you add one more comment at the top of the file like "this test originally failed by using 100% CPU and should now take less than 1 second to run". I'd like a faster way to know that these additional failures are not a problem.

sandersn · 2017-02-17T17:38:42Z

tests/baselines/reference/thisTypeInFunctions2.js

        this.mine
-        this.willDestroy
+        //this.willDestroy


just delete this, I think. #Resolved

sandersn · 2017-02-17T18:55:37Z

Summary of RWC breaks [1]: two good breaks from contextual typing of function assignment. Two breaks that show that Object.defineProperty and friends need to include ThisType<T>. One break that shows that choosing the contextual type of the object literal instead of the contextual type from a function call argument is incorrect.

[1] Note that I haven't looked at all of RWC yet; it hit a stack overflow halfway through.

A good break resulting from contextual typing of function assignment.

declare function f(elt: HTMLElement): void;
function outer() {
  var self = this;
  var args: Draggable;
  args.helper = function () {
    return f(this); 
    
      // error 'this: Draggable' is not assignable to 'HTMLElement'
      //   Property 'accessKey' is missing in 'Draggable'
  };
}

This catches code that is just wrong. I looked at Draggable and it's not at all related to HTMLElement.

(This happened in two different projects.)

Another break from contextual typing of function assignment.

// Override the prototype method on C
CBase.prototype.debug = function() {
  var self: C = this;
    // error type 'CBase' is not assignable to 'C'
    //   Property '_subclassProperty' is missing in 'CBase'

I'm not sure what to make of this. The comment makes it sound like the intention is to override the method on C, not on CBase. So probably this is a good error too.

Defining properties on Array.prototype using Object.defineProperties.

Object.defineProperties(Array.prototype, {
  empty: {
    value: function() {
      return this.length === 0;
    }
  }
})

It looks like Object.defineProperties and related methods need to use ThisType to provide the correct type for this here.

Implicit any errors on a this type that has no index signature.

function defineProperty(c: any, name: string, defaultValue: any) {
  var backingFieldName = "_" + name;
  Object.defineProperty(
    c.prototype,
    name,
    {
      get: function(): any {
        if (typeof this[backingFieldName] === 'undefined') {
          this[backingFieldName] = defaultValue;
        }
        return this[backingFieldName];
      }, // code continues ...
    }); 
};

This would also be fixed by adding ThisType to Object.defineProperty because c.prototype: any and would avoid the noImplicitAny error.

Object literal type overrides contextual type:

interface MockJaxOptions {
  url?: string;
  responseTime?: number;
  status?: number;
  responseText?: string;
  responseHeaders: StringMap<string>;
}

$.mockjax({
  type: "GET",
  url: "blah/blah/blah",
  status: 200,
  contentType: "application/json",
  response: function() {
    this.responseText = JSON.stringify({ stuff: "things" });
    // error: property 'responseText' does not exist on '{ type: string ... }'
  }
});

This is bad because $.mockjax shouldn't really need to have its parameter be of type MockJaxOptions & ThisType<MockJaxOptions>.
I have a hunch this is fairly old code because JQuery MockJax now has its own d.ts. So we could fix this particular break in only one place, but it is symptomatic of a larger problem.

sandersn · 2017-02-17T23:10:56Z

More breaks:

In vscode/src/vs/languages/markdown/common/markdownWorker.ts:

    	public getEmitOutput(resource: URI, absoluteWorkersResourcePath: string): WinJS.TPromise<Modes.IEmitOutput> { // TODO@Ben technical debt: worker cannot resolve paths absolute
    		let model = this.resourceService.get(resource);
    		let cssLinks: string[] = this.cssLinks || [];
    
    		// Custom Renderer to fix href in images
    		let renderer = new Marked.marked.Renderer();
    		let $this = this;
    		renderer.image = function(href: string, title: string, text: string): string {
    			let out = '<img src="' + $this.fixHref(resource, href) + '" alt="' + text + '"';
    			if (title) {
    				out += ' title="' + title + '"';
    			}
    
    			out += (this.options && this.options.xhtml) ? '/>' : '>';
    			             ~~~~~~~
!!! error TS2339: Property 'options' does not exist on type 'MarkedRenderer'.
    			                             ~~~~~~~
!!! error TS2339: Property 'options' does not exist on type 'MarkedRenderer'.

This seems like a good break. I can't find a property named 'options' in MarkedRenderer or in the class that contains getEmitOutput.

Knockout's observable.fn entries don't specify that this is callable.

ko.observable.fn['toInt'] = function() {
  return parseInt(this());
                  ~~~~~~
!!! error TS2349: Cannot invoke an expression whose type lacks a call signature. Type 'KnockoutObservableFunctions<any>' has no compatible call signatures.
}

This seems like an easy fix to knockout's d.ts. It's just that nobody ever noticed that KnockoutBindingHandler needed to have a line (): any at the beginning.

RxJs/src/observable/dom/AjaxObservable.ts gets contextual typing from assignment

      private setupEvents(xhr: XMLHttpRequest, request: AjaxRequest) {
        const progressSubscriber = request.progressSubscriber;
    
        xhr.ontimeout = function xhrTimeout(e) {
          const {subscriber, progressSubscriber, request } = (<any>xhrTimeout);
          if (progressSubscriber) {
            progressSubscriber.error(e);
          }
          subscriber.error(new AjaxTimeoutError(this, request)); //TODO: Make betterer.
                                                ~~~~
!!! error TS2345: Argument of type 'XMLHttpRequestEventTarget' is not assignable to parameter of type 'XMLHttpRequest'.
!!! error TS2345:   Property 'onreadystatechange' is missing in type 'XMLHttpRequestEventTarget'.
        };

This seems like a good break too. The comment even indicates that the author is suspicious that something is wrong.

Angular 2 decorators_spec.ts

export function main() {
      describe('es5 decorators', () => {
        it('should declare directive class', () => {
          var MyDirective = Directive({}).Class({constructor: function() { this.works = true; }});
                                                                                ~~~~~
!!! error TS2339: Property 'works' does not exist on type '{ constructor: () => void; }'.
          expect(new MyDirective().works).toEqual(true);
        });

This is probably another case where the type of the object literal needs to be intersected with the contextual type from the call signature. But it's in a test. It could just be a completely dynamic use of an undeclared property.

Angular 2 React benchmark

    // tree benchmark in React
    import {getIntParameter, bindAction} from 'angular2/src/test_lib/benchmark_util';
    import * as React from './react.min';
    
    var TreeComponent = React.createClass({
      displayName: 'TreeComponent',
    
      render: function() {
        var treeNode = this.props.treeNode;
                            ~~~~~
!!! error TS2339: Property 'props' does not exist on type '{ displayName: string; render: () => any; }'.

This is evidence that React.createClass will need to update its d.ts too.

bradenhs · 2017-02-21T17:59:54Z

I just tried this out and thought this would work:

const person = {
  firstName: 'First',
  lastName: 'Last',
  getName() {
    // works!
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
  },
  get name() {
    // 'this' implicitly has type 'any' because it does not have a type annotation.
    return this.firstName + ' ' + this.lastName;
  },
};

But it looks like the getter isn't aware of the type of this. Is this behavior correct?

sandersn · 2017-02-21T19:42:50Z

@bradenhs Nope, that is not correct. But the code right now specifically works with the contextual type of this in functions and methods. It needs code to support getters and setters too. I'll update my review comment above so @ahejlsberg will see it when he gets back from vacaation.

ahejlsberg · 2017-02-23T17:32:24Z

With latest commits we now properly type this in getters and setters.

sandersn · 2017-02-23T19:00:19Z

tests/baselines/reference/thisTypeInAccessorsNegative.errors.txt

@@ -22,9 +21,6 @@ tests/cases/conformance/types/thisType/thisTypeInAccessorsNegative.ts(16,22): er
    }
    const contextual: Foo = {


Can you move this test case to thisTypeInAccessors.ts so that we can see the types?

ahejlsberg · 2017-03-02T00:16:02Z

Latest commit puts all of the new functionality under the --noImplicitThis switch. This ensures there are no breaking changes as a result of this PR since the situations in which we strongly type this in object literal methods were previously errors under --noImplicitThis.

aozgaa · 2017-03-02T00:58:10Z

In the SymbolDisplayBuilder, should we change the following?

                    else if (type.flags & TypeFlags.TypeParameter && (type as TypeParameter).isThisType) {
                        if (inObjectTypeLiteral) {
                            writer.reportInaccessibleThisError();
                        }
                        writer.writeKeyword("this");
                    }

ahejlsberg · 2017-03-02T01:21:59Z

@aozgaa No, that is an unrelated check (it reports an error if this is accessed in a type position within an object type literal).

ahejlsberg · 2017-03-02T01:22:22Z

@mhegazy I think this one is good to do. Want to take a look?

dwickern · 2017-06-13T02:58:02Z

In this scenario, is it possible to infer this from the containing object literal? Or declare somehow that wrap does not change the context?

let foo = {
    hello: "hello",
    f() {
        return this.hello; // works
    },
    get p() {
        return this.hello; // works
    },
    g: wrap(function () {
        return this.hello; // TS2683:'this' implicitly has type 'any' because it does not have a type annotation.
    })
}

Jessidhia · 2017-06-13T14:01:06Z

I haven’t tested it but it should be possible with generics.

declare function wrap<T, F extends (this: T) => any>(f: F): F

dwickern · 2017-06-13T15:33:22Z

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to work without specifying wrap<{ hello: string }>(function() { ... }).

ahejlsberg added 5 commits February 14, 2017 12:04

Use '__this__' property in contextual type to indicate type of 'this'

f6a3a3f

Introduce ThisType<T> marker interface

8cd6c5d

Default contextual 'this' type is containing object literal

2ca6164

Update tests

e512376

Accept new baselines

d7e153d

msftclas added the cla-not-required label Feb 17, 2017

ahejlsberg changed the title ~~Typed 'this~~ Typed 'this' in object literal methods Feb 17, 2017

ahejlsberg added 2 commits February 16, 2017 20:15

Merge branch 'master' into contextualThisType

fe32bb7

Accept new baselines

27346b1

Contextual this in 'obj.xxx = function(...)' or 'obj[xxx] = function(…

e3a0687

…...)'

sandersn requested changes Feb 17, 2017

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ghost mentioned this pull request Feb 17, 2017

HTMLElement onchange should use this: this microsoft/TypeScript-DOM-lib-generator#195

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bradenhs mentioned this pull request Feb 21, 2017

Typescript Examples mobxjs/mobx-state-tree#9

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ahejlsberg added 4 commits February 22, 2017 19:16

Contextually type 'this' in accessors of object literals

168d367

Accept new baselines

c2d8a59

Update test

ec292c9

Fix linting error

9b6b6cc

sandersn reviewed Feb 23, 2017

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ahejlsberg added this to the TypeScript 2.3 milestone Mar 2, 2017

ahejlsberg added 2 commits March 1, 2017 17:16

Add ThisType<any> to Object.{create|defineProperty|defineProperties}

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Accept new baselines

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This was referenced Mar 3, 2017

Feature request: parseComponent's pad: true option should use spaces for padding vuejs/vue#5058

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CompletionProvider / IntelliSense vuejs/vetur#26

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mhegazy approved these changes Mar 6, 2017

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ahejlsberg merged commit 41226d0 into master Mar 6, 2017

ahejlsberg deleted the contextualThisType branch March 6, 2017 21:11

gdh1995 mentioned this pull request Mar 7, 2017

ThisType may be null unexpectly if strictNullChecks is enabled #14504

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DanielRosenwasser mentioned this pull request Mar 7, 2017

Users shouldn't need 'noImplicitThis' on to benefit from 'ThisType<T>' #14518

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kitsonk mentioned this pull request Mar 9, 2017

Migration to TypeScript 2.3 dojo/meta#153

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octref mentioned this pull request Mar 17, 2017

Add vue.d.ts and typescript support vuejs/vetur#94

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This was referenced Apr 12, 2017

Question: Why does "this" not have a type in function assigned to class prototype #8024

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Object literals use contextual type for this when available and ignore type of literal itself. #15157

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mhegazy mentioned this pull request Apr 17, 2017

Go to definition cannot work as expected #15218

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mattiamanzati mentioned this pull request Apr 26, 2017

introduce utility methods? mobxjs/mobx-state-tree#84

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DanielRosenwasser mentioned this pull request May 15, 2017

[Feature Request] A way to instruct how to infer this #15836

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Tasks cleanup screepers/screeps-typescript-starter#44

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Typed this in JavaScript Object Literals #16184

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Further improve Vue type declarations for canonical usage vuejs/vue#6391

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Document ThisType<T> microsoft/TypeScript-Handbook#649

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Leverage types for perf improvements sveltejs/svelte#418

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Typed 'this' in object literal methods #14141

Typed 'this' in object literal methods #14141

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		@@ -22,9 +21,6 @@ tests/cases/conformance/types/thisType/thisTypeInAccessorsNegative.ts(16,22): er
		}
		const contextual: Foo = {

Typed 'this' in object literal methods #14141

Typed 'this' in object literal methods #14141

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