React + Typescript Cheatsheet

Setup

If you use atom... download & install the following packages:

What are Typescript type definition files? (*.d.ts)

You may see a folder called typings with a lot of files that follow the pattern *.d.ts. These are type definition files. Type definition files are used to declare the interfaces of public API of third party libraries like jQuery or React. That way you don't have to create all the typings for third party libraries!

How do you create a React component with Typescript?

Create a file using the .tsx extention
Declare the interface for any props that that the React Component uses

interface TodoProps {
    todo: string
    status: string
}

Declare the interface for any state that exists within the React component

interface TodoState {
    isEditing?: boolean
    // Make all state optional! See Hack below
}

Hack: For now make every key in state optional or else Typescript with throw an error

Create a React component using the interfaces you created

class TodoComponent extends React.Component<TodoProps, TodoState> {
    constructor(props: TodoProps) {
        super(props)
        this.state = { ... } // initial state
    }
    ... // public + react methods
}

Misc

refs

In order for Typescript to be happy, use refs inside the class like so:

class Cat extends <CatProps, {}> { // no state
  refs: {
    [key: string]: (Element)
    litterBox: (HTMLInputElement) // !important
  }
  constructor(props: CatProps){ ... } // constructor
  render() {
    return (
      <div ref="litterBox">
        litter
      </div>
    )
  }
}

Glossary

Interface

A collection of types that describes the shape that a value must have

interface CatValue {
  name: string
  age: number
}

function petCat(cat: VatValue) {
  console.log(cat.name)
}

let myCat = { name: 'Whiskers', age: 4 }
petCat(myCat) // 'Whiskers'

PROTIP: use ? for optional values

interface CatValue {
  name: string
  age: number
  favoriteFish?: string // optional
}

LeonDevLifeLog/react-typescript.md