An example of how to use TypeScript's impressive type inference with both generics and function overloads to achieve robust static typing with runtime type knowledge too! Playground: http://tinyurl.com/hxue2sw

typescript-static-and-runtime-typing.ts

type StaticValueType = string | number | boolean;
type StringValueType = 'string' | 'number' | 'boolean';

function parse(val: string): 'string';
function parse(val: number): 'number';
function parse(val: boolean): 'boolean';
function parse<T extends StringValueType>(val: null, valType: T): T;
function parse(val: StaticValueType | null, valType?: StringValueType): StringValueType {
    if (val == null) {
        if (valType == null) {
            throw new Error();
        }
        return valType;
    }

    const t = typeof val;

    switch (t) {
        case 'boolean':
        case 'number':
        case 'string':
            // TODO: Ideally, this cast wouldn't be necessary!
            // It ties this code to the StringValueType type union.
            // It'd be nice to statically verify we've exhaustively checked.
            return t as StringValueType;

        default:
            throw new Error('Should never happen!');
    }
}

// These should not compile (but undefined and null do when `--strictNullChecks` isn't enabled):
parse();
parse(undefined);
parse(null);
parse({});
parse([]);
parse(parse);

// These should compile, and the type should be correctly inferred!
let strType = parse('');
let numType = parse(0);
let boolType = parse(false);
let verifyStrType: 'string' = strType;
let verifyNumType: 'number' = numType;
let verifyBoolType: 'boolean' = boolType;

// These should not:
strType = parse(0);
numType = parse(false);
boolType = parse('');

// These should compile, and the type should be correctly inferred too!
strType = parse(null, 'string');
numType = parse(null, 'number');
boolType = parse(null, 'boolean');
verifyStrType = strType;
verifyNumType = numType;
verifyBoolType = boolType;

// These should not:
strType = parse(null, 'boolean');
numType = parse(null, 'string');
boolType = parse(null, 'number');