Typescript dynamically create interface

Question

I use simple-schema to define DB schemas in an object:

{    name: 'string',    age: 'integer',    ... } 

Is it somehow possible to create an interface or class from this object, so I don't have to type everything twice?

Answer 1

You can do this, but it might be more trouble than it's worth unless you think you might be changing the schema. TypeScript doesn't have built-in ways of inferring types in a way that you want, so you have to coax and cajole it to do so:

---

First, define a way of mapping the literal names 'string' and 'integer' to the TypeScript types they represent (presumably string and number respectively):

type MapSchemaTypes = {   string: string;   integer: number;   // others? }  type MapSchema<T extends Record<string, keyof MapSchemaTypes>> = {   -readonly [K in keyof T]: MapSchemaTypes[T[K]] } 

Now if you can take an appropriately typed schema object like the one you specified, and get the associated type from it:

const personSchema = {name: 'string', age: 'integer'};  type Person = MapSchema<typeof personSchema>; // ERROR 

Oops, the problem is that personSchema is being inferred as {name: string; age: string} instead of the desired {name: 'string'; age: 'integer'}. You can fix that with a type annotation:

const personSchema: { name: 'string', age: 'integer' } = { name: 'string', age: 'integer' };  type Person = MapSchema<typeof personSchema>; // {name: string; age: number}; 

But now it feels like you're repeating yourself. Luckily there is a way to force it to infer the proper type:

function asSchema<T extends Record<string, keyof MapSchemaTypes>>(t: T): T {   return t; } const personSchema = asSchema({ name: 'string', age: 'integer' }); // right type now type Person = MapSchema<typeof personSchema>; // {name: string; age: number}; 

UPDATE 2020-06: in more recent TS versions you can use a const assertion to get the same result:

const personSchema = { name: 'string', age: 'integer' } as const; type Person = MapSchema<typeof personSchema>; 

That works!

---

See it in action on the Typescript Playground. Hope that helps; good luck!

Answer 2

I don't think you can declare dynamic interfaces. However, you can create a type for objects with known properties.

You can create an object that maps string literals to actual types, e.g. 'integer' => number, but that is not relevant to the question. I don't know what framework you're using but the following example works for a similar looking framework: Mongoose.

users.js

export const UserSchema = mongoose.Schema({     name: String,     value: Number });  export const Users = mongoose.Model('users', UserSchema);  export type User = { [K in keyof typeof UserSchema]: any } ; 

usage:

import { User, Users } from './user';  Users.find({}).exec((err: Error, res: User) => { ... }) 

The returned result should have the same keys as UserSchema, but all values are mapped to any as you would still have to map string literals to types.