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

I'm trying to rebuild a web app example that uses Firebase Cloud Functions and Firestore. When deploying a function I get the following error:

src/index.ts:45:18 - error TS2532: Object is possibly 'undefined'.
45     const data = change.after.data();

This is the function:

export const archiveChat = functions.firestore
  .document("chats/{chatId}")
  .onUpdate(change => {
    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;
    }
  });

I'm just trying to deploy the function to test it. And already searched the web for similar problems, but couldn't find any other posts that match my problem.

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)