How can I solve the error 'TS2532: Object is possibly 'undefined'?

Question

With the release of TypeScript 3.7, optional chaining (the ? operator) is now officially available.

As such, you can simplify your expression to the following:

const data = change?.after?.data();

You may read more about it from that version's release notes, which cover other interesting features released on that version.

Run the following to install the latest stable release of TypeScript.

npm install typescript

That being said, Optional Chaining can be used alongside Nullish Coalescing to provide a fallback value when dealing with null or undefined values

const data = change?.after?.data() ?? someOtherData();

---

Additional points:

If you are using optional chaining in the conditional if statements, you will still need to ensure that you are doing proper value/type equality checking.

The following will fail in strict TypeScript, as you are possibly comparing an undefined value with a number.

if (_?.childs?.length > 0) 

Instead, this is what you should be doing:

if (_?.childs && _.childs.length > 0) 

Edit / Update:

If you are using Typescript 3.7 or newer you can now also do:

    const data = change?.after?.data();

    if(!data) {
      console.error('No data here!');
       return null
    }

    const maxLen = 100;
    const msgLen = data.messages.length;
    const charLen = JSON.stringify(data).length;

    const batch = db.batch();

    if (charLen >= 10000 || msgLen >= maxLen) {

      // Always delete at least 1 message
      const deleteCount = msgLen - maxLen <= 0 ? 1 : msgLen - maxLen
      data.messages.splice(0, deleteCount);

      const ref = db.collection("chats").doc(change.after.id);

      batch.set(ref, data, { merge: true });

      return batch.commit();
    } else {
      return null;
    }

Original Response

Typescript is saying that change or data is possibly undefined (depending on what onUpdate returns).

So you should wrap it in a null/undefined check:

if(change && change.after && change.after.data){
    const data = change.after.data();

    const maxLen = 100;
    const msgLen = data.messages.length;
    const charLen = JSON.stringify(data).length;

    const batch = db.batch();

    if (charLen >= 10000 || msgLen >= maxLen) {

      // Always delete at least 1 message
      const deleteCount = msgLen - maxLen <= 0 ? 1 : msgLen - maxLen
      data.messages.splice(0, deleteCount);

      const ref = db.collection("chats").doc(change.after.id);

      batch.set(ref, data, { merge: true });

      return batch.commit();
    } else {
      return null;
    }
}

If you are 100% sure that your object is always defined then you can put this:

const data = change.after!.data();

For others facing a similar problem to mine, where you know a particular object property cannot be null, you can use the non-null assertion operator (!) after the item in question. This was my code:

  const naciStatus = dataToSend.naci?.statusNACI;
  if (typeof naciStatus != "undefined") {
    switch (naciStatus) {
      case "AP":
        dataToSend.naci.certificateStatus = "FALSE";
        break;
      case "AS":
      case "WR":
        dataToSend.naci.certificateStatus = "TRUE";
        break;
      default:
        dataToSend.naci.certificateStatus = "";
    }
  }

And because dataToSend.naci cannot be undefined in the switch statement, the code can be updated to include exclamation marks as follows:

  const naciStatus = dataToSend.naci?.statusNACI;
  if (typeof naciStatus != "undefined") {
    switch (naciStatus) {
      case "AP":
        dataToSend.naci!.certificateStatus = "FALSE";
        break;
      case "AS":
      case "WR":
        dataToSend.naci!.certificateStatus = "TRUE";
        break;
      default:
        dataToSend.naci!.certificateStatus = "";
    }
  }