Making nullable properties optional in TypeScript

Sometimes optional properties turn out like nullable in the build system.

Let’s say you have a type like this:

type City = {
  name: string;
  population: number | null;
  mayor: string | null;
  dbId: string | null;
};

But you would like a type like this:

type City = {
  name: string;
  population?: number | null;
  mayor?: string | null;
  dbId?: string | null;
};

What we need is an OptionalNullable<T> type. This can be achieved by using a PickNullable and a PickNotNullable utility type and combining them together.

type PickNullable<T> = {
  [P in keyof T as null extends T[P] ? P : never]: T[P];
};

type PickNotNullable<T> = {
  [P in keyof T as null extends T[P] ? never : P]: T[P];
};

type OptionalNullable<T> = {
  [K in keyof PickNullable<T>]?: T[K];
} & {
  [K in keyof PickNotNullable<T>]: T[K];
};

// use it:
const city: OptionalNullable<City> = {
  name: "Los Angeles",
};

Thanks Tobias S for helping me on Stack Overflow.

Making nullable properties optional in TypeScript

Hi!