Optional Parameters and Rest Parameters

Optional Parameters and Rest Parameters

When comparing functions for compatibility, optional and required parameters are interchangeable. Extra optional parameters of the source type are not an error, and optional parameters of the target type without corresponding parameters in the target type are not an error.

When a function has a rest parameter, it is treated as if it were an infinite series of optional parameters.

This is unsound from a type system perspective, but from a runtime point of view the idea of an optional parameter is generally not well-enforced since passing undefined in that position is equivalent for most functions.

The motivating example is the common pattern of a function that takes a callback and invokes it with some predictable (to the programmer) but unknown (to the type system) number of arguments:

function invokeLater(args: any[], callback: (...args: any[]) => void) {
  /* ... Invoke callback with 'args' ... */
}

// Unsound - invokeLater "might" provide any number of arguments
invokeLater([1, 2], (x, y) => console.log(x + ", " + y));

// Confusing (x and y are actually required) and undiscoverable
invokeLater([1, 2], (x?, y?) => console.log(x + ", " + y));