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78 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
78 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
# Constrained Generics
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## Summary
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Allows you to give a function generic a constrained type.
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## Motivation
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Some functions, such as the one below, allow you to feed it a table, and the table's keys are fed into the base object. With the current implementation of generics, this cannot be done and as such, the autocomplete information of the object is unavailable
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```lua
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type Enum<T> = {
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GetEnumItems: (Enum) -> {[string]: EnumItem}
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} & T
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local function Enum<T>(description: T): Enum<T>
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local enum = {}
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-- merge keys into the enum
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for _, enumItem in description do -- Cannot call non-function T
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table.insert(enum, enumItem)
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end
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```
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Without the generics, this would type would become
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```lua
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{GetEnumItems(Enum) -> {[string]: number}, items: {[string[: number}}
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```
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In reality, we'd prefer it if items and GetEnumItems return `T`, instead of explicitly declared dictionaries.
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This constraining is mainly for concrete table types and functions, since types like `number`, `string`, and `boolean` are literal types.
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## Design
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The way to implement this is to have new syntax under the generic's brackets: `<T: typedef>`. This would constrain the type from the generic def and give the typechecker better hints.
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```lua
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local function Enum<T: {[string]: any}>(description: T): Enum<T>
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local enum = {}
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-- merge keys into the enum
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for _, enumItem in description do -- Typechecker now knows T is at least a string table, so this becomes somewhat valid
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table.insert(enum, enumItem)
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end
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```
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This will also help the typechecker from the outside looking into the function, for example:
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```lua
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Enum {None = 0, Some = 1, All = 2} --OK
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Enum {"None", "Some", "All"} -- Not OK (generic must be have string keys)
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Enum(0) -- Not ok (generic must be a table)
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```
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Finally, this will also give the autocomplete the correct information about the Enum, correctly containing the "None", "Some" and "All" keys
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```lua
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Enum. --> GetEnumItems: (Enum) -> {None: number, Some: number, All: number}
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--> None: number
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--> Some: number
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--> All: number
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```
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## Drawbacks
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More of the complexity budget spent.
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This adds unusual syntax, as well as adding to the complexity of the language.
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This also doesn't address how this should be approached around type packs.
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## Alternatives
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Use something similar to Rust's `where` syntax:
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```lua
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local function Enum<T>(tab: T) where T: {[string]: any}
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```
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Do nothing, and use the `assert(type(T) == T)` syntax, though this creates extra bytecode. It also casts the object as `never`, which removes the type errors, however no autocomplete information is generated.
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