I have a basic interface, which I use down the line to enforce specific values on other interfaces:
interface ObjectWithEnforcedValues {
values: readonly EnforcedValue[];
}
enum EnforcedValue {
FirstValue = 'FirstValue',
SecondValue = 'SecondValue',
}
Then I use it on an actual interfaces I want to use to create actual objects, for example:
interface Interface extends ObjectWithEnforcedValues {
values: readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue];
}
So far so good, but the problem comes when I try to extend the Interface
and increase the number of enforced values. Typescript does not like this at all:
interface ExtendedInterface extends Interface {
values: readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue, EnforcedValue.SecondValue]
}
Basically the goal is to make sure anyone creating new instances of objects using these interfaces sets the values
property to the specific enforced values, but I am not able to make it work properly with inheritance. Logically it seems that it SHOULD work, because in the case above, Interface
enforces the first value in the array to be FirstValue
and ExtendedInterface
adheres to that and only adds a SecondValue
to the second position of the array. Is there any way to do this or Typescript just does not allow this? First thing that comes to mind is using class
and just set the property directly there instead of using interfaces like this, but unfortunately I cannot use that, everything is just plain objects.
Things I have tried:
ExtendedInterface
using extends Omit<Interface, 'values'>
and redefining values
- This defies proper inheritance and disallows passing ExtendedInterface
instances as a parameter to functions accepting Interface
interface Interface extends ObjectWithEnforcedValues {
values: readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue, ...EnforcedValue[]];
}
interface ExtendedInterface extends Interface {
values: readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue, EnforcedValue.SecondValue,
...EnforcedValue[]]
}
This makes more or less everything work as I need, but allows to put whatever values at the end of the array, which I do not want to allow.
Is there any way to make it work properly or should I just give up and use the second option?
You could use generics:
interface ObjectWithEnforcedValues<T extends readonly EnforcedValue[] = readonly EnforcedValue[]> {
values: T
}
enum EnforcedValue {
FirstValue = 'FirstValue',
SecondValue = 'SecondValue',
}
interface Interface<T extends readonly EnforcedValue[] = readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue]> extends ObjectWithEnforcedValues <T> {
}
interface ExtendedInterface<T extends readonly EnforcedValue[] = readonly [EnforcedValue.FirstValue, EnforcedValue.SecondValue]> extends Interface<T> {
}
const i1: Interface = {values: [EnforcedValue.FirstValue]}
const i2: ExtendedInterface = {values: [EnforcedValue.FirstValue, EnforcedValue.SecondValue]}
To ensure structural inheritance you could use an object instead of an array: