Indexable Types

Indexable Types

Similarly to how we can use interfaces to describe function types, we can also describe types that we can “index into” like a[10], or ageMap["daniel"]. Indexable types have an index signature that describes the types we can use to index into the object, along with the corresponding return types when indexing. Let’s take an example:

interface StringArray {
  [index: number]: string;
}

let myArray: StringArray;
myArray = ["Bob", "Fred"];

let myStr: string = myArray[0];

Above, we have a StringArray interface that has an index signature. This index signature states that when a StringArray is indexed with a number, it will return a string.

There are two types of supported index signatures: string and number. It is possible to support both types of indexers, but the type returned from a numeric indexer must be a subtype of the type returned from the string indexer. This is because when indexing with a number, JavaScript will actually convert that to a string before indexing into an object. That means that indexing with 100 (a number) is the same thing as indexing with "100" (a string), so the two need to be consistent.

class Animal {
  name: string;
}
class Dog extends Animal {
  breed: string;
}

// Error: indexing with a 'string' will sometimes get you a Dog!
interface NotOkay {
  [x: number]: Animal;
  [x: string]: Dog;
}

While string index signatures are a powerful way to describe the “dictionary” pattern, they also enforce that all properties match their return type. This is because a string index declares that obj.property is also available as obj["property"]. In the following example, name’s type does not match the string index’s type, and the type-checker gives an error:

interface NumberDictionary {
  [index: string]: number;
  length: number;  // ok, length is a number
  name: string;    // error, the type of 'name' is not a subtype of the indexer
}

Finally, you can make index signatures readonly in order to prevent assignment to their indices:

interface ReadonlyStringArray {
  readonly [index: number]: string;
}
let myArray: ReadonlyStringArray = ["Alice", "Bob"];
myArray[2] = "Mallory"; // error!

You can’t set myArray[2] because the index signature is readonly.