Expect Type Error

[anodynos]

Hey and thanks for this lib - I started using it to day, coming from using plain .ts files with typed variable assignments & forced errors with // @ts-expect-error on top. It worked well, but I want to get to something more structured.

I see I also have to use // ts-expect-error to catch expected errors in ts-expect-error, which is fine.

I'm also in the habit of documenting the expected errors, like we do in out code tests, but it's purely for documentation & future reference, as it's not possible to be checked. For example:

const identity = <T>(val: T): T => val

// @ts-expect-error: TS2322: Type number is not assignable to type string
const str: string = identity(123)

In ts-expect we have the expectType<number>("test"); // Compiler error example, but we don't document the error somehow, so it can be checked.

An exotic new version could support something like:

expectTypeError<number>("test", `TS2345: Argument of type string is not assignable to parameter of type number`);

and perhaps do some magic to obtain error codes & descriptions.

I know this is much much harder, and probably not just a lib, as it perhaps would have to incorporate information from the IDE or TS compiler to do the trick, but there might be a way ;-) Maybe an IDE plugin? Who knows!

Anyway, just a thought, just sharing!

[anodynos]

Having used it for a whole day, I want to add another issue.

I find the strict version of

  expectType<TypeEqual<typeof value, SomeType>>(true)

much more useful than simple expectType, but when it fails during development it doesn't show the real error, instead it only shows TS2345: Argument of type true is not assignable to parameter of type false.

I resort to assignment to a variable, which is not always desirable... I think if this is fixed in will make the library 5x more useful!

[blakeembrey]

Definitely agree with both of these, and I'll keep them in mind if anyone else wants to work on it or I find time, but I think they both require hooking into the TypeScript compiler directly.

Another option might be: https://github.com/tsdjs/tsd

It's much more complete and uses the compiler IIRC, so probably covers these cases already.

[mrazauskas]

@anodynos Please take a look at TSTyche (this my project), https://github.com/tstyche/tstyche. It has the .toRaiseError(), which is able to capture type error:

// matching message
expect<Matchers>().type.toRaiseError("requires between 1 and 2 type arguments");
// or code
expect<Matchers>().type.toRaiseError(2707);

By the way, a better idea to test assignably would be using .not.toBeAssignableTo().