Element implicitly has an 'any' type because expression of type 'string' can't be used to index

Question

Trying out TypeScript for a React project and I'm stuck on this error:

Element implicitly has an 'any' type because expression of type 'string' can't be used to index type '{ train_1: boolean; train_2: boolean; train_3: boolean; train_4: boolean; }'.
  No index signature with a parameter of type 'string' was found on type '{ train_1: boolean; train_2: boolean; train_3: boolean; train_4: boolean; }'

Which appears when I try to filter the array in my component

.filter(({ name }) => plotOptions[name]);

So far I looked at the article "Indexing objects in TypeScript" (https://dev.to/kingdaro/indexing-objects-in-typescript-1cgi) since it had a similar error, but I tried to add the index signature to type plotTypes and I still get the same error.

My component code:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import createPlotlyComponent from "react-plotly.js/factory";
import Plotly from "plotly.js-basic-dist";
const Plot = createPlotlyComponent(Plotly);

interface IProps {
  data: any;
}

interface IState {
  [key: string]: plotTypes;
  plotOptions: plotTypes;
}

type plotTypes = {
  [key: string]: boolean;
  train_1: boolean;
  train_2: boolean;
  train_3: boolean;
  train_4: boolean;
};

interface trainInfo {
  name: string;
  x: Array<number>;
  y: Array<number>;
  type: string;
  mode: string;
}

class FiltrationPlots extends Component<IProps, IState> {
  readonly state = {
    plotOptions: {
      train_1: true,
      train_2: true,
      train_3: true,
      train_4: true
    }
  };
  render() {
    const { data } = this.props;
    const { plotOptions } = this.state;

    if (data.filtrationData) {
      const plotData: Array<trainInfo> = [
        {
          name: "train_1",
          x: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["1-CumVol"]),
          y: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["1-PressureA"]),
          type: "scatter",
          mode: "lines"
        },
        {
          name: "train_2",
          x: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["2-CumVol"]),
          y: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["2-PressureA"]),
          type: "scatter",
          mode: "lines"
        },
        {
          name: "train_3",
          x: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["3-CumVol"]),
          y: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["3-PressureA"]),
          type: "scatter",
          mode: "lines"
        },
        {
          name: "train_4",
          x: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["4-CumVol"]),
          y: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["4-PressureA"]),
          type: "scatter",
          mode: "lines"
        }
      ].filter(({ name }) => plotOptions[name]);
      return (
        <Plot
          data={plotData}
          layout={{ width: 1000, height: 1000, title: "A Fancy Plot" }}
        />
      );
    } else {
      return <h1>No Data Loaded</h1>;
    }
  }
}

export default FiltrationPlots;

Answer 1

For anyone who stumbles upon this in the future:

If you're getting the TypeScript error

'...expression of type string cannot be used to index...'

then simply specify that the 'expression of type string' is a key of the type of that object. For example,

const someObj:ObjectType = data;
const field = 'username';

// This gives an error
const temp = someObj[field];

// Solution 1: When the type of the object is known
const temp = someObj[field as keyof ObjectType]

// Solution 2: When the type of the object is not known
const temp = someObj[field as keyof typeof someObj]

Answer 2

This happens because you try to access plotOptions property using string name. TypeScript understands that name may have any value, not only property name from plotOptions. So TypeScript requires to add index signature to plotOptions, so it knows that you can use any property name in plotOptions. But I suggest to change type of name, so it can only be one of plotOptions properties.

interface trainInfo {
    name: keyof typeof plotOptions;
    x: Array<number>;
    y: Array<number>;
    type: string;
    mode: string;
}

Now you'll be able to use only property names that exist in plotOptions.

You also have to slightly change your code.

First assign array to some temp variable, so TS knows array type:

const plotDataTemp: Array<trainInfo> = [
    {
      name: "train_1",
      x: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["1-CumVol"]),
      y: data.filtrationData.map((i: any) => i["1-PressureA"]),
      type: "scatter",
      mode: "lines"
    },
    // ...
}

Then filter:

const plotData = plotDataTemp.filter(({ name }) => plotOptions[name]);

If you're getting data from API and have no way to type check props at compile time the only way is to add index signature to your plotOptions:

type tplotOptions = {
    [key: string]: boolean
}

const plotOptions: tplotOptions = {
    train_1: true,
    train_2: true,
    train_3: true,
    train_4: true
}