Ex Term 15 - TypeScript

TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds static typing to the language. It was developed by Microsoft and released in 2012. TypeScript provides powerful tooling for large-scale JavaScript applications. It has gained popularity in recent years and is used in many big companies such as Microsoft, Google, Netflix, and more.

Features

TypeScript provides several features that make it a popular choice for JavaScript development. Some of the features are:

Static Typing

One of the main features of TypeScript is static typing. This means that you can define the types of variables, function parameters, and return values at the time of writing the code. TypeScript uses the :type syntax to define types. For example:

let age: number = 30;
function addNumbers(a: number, b: number): number {
  return a + b;
}

Object-oriented features

TypeScript also supports object-oriented programming features such as classes, interfaces, and access modifiers. Classes can inherit from other classes and interfaces can define the structure of objects. Access modifiers such as public, private, and protected can be used to control access to class members.

interface Animal {
  name: string;
  age: number;
}

class Dog implements Animal {
  constructor(public name: string, public age: number) {}

  bark(): void {
    console.log('Woof!');
  }
}

Type Inference

TypeScript uses type inference to infer the types of variables when no explicit type is provided.

let name = 'John'; // name is of type string
let age = 30; // age is of type number

Support for latest JavaScript features

TypeScript supports the latest JavaScript features such as async/await, destructuring, arrow functions, and more.

async function fetchData() {
  const response = await fetch('/api/data');
  const { data } = await response.json();

  return data;
}

const sum = (a: number, b: number) => a + b;

Conclusion

TypeScript offers several advantages for JavaScript development. Its static typing and object-oriented features make it suitable for large-scale applications. It is also easy to learn if you are familiar with JavaScript. Consider using TypeScript if you want to improve the structure and maintainability of your JavaScript code.