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Automatically generate 🔥 blazing🔥 fast validators for Typescript types.

Babel Macro

Example

type Cat<T> = {
    breed: "tabby" | "siamese";
    isNice: boolean
    trinket?: T;
}
registerType('Cat')
// Turned into a validation function at compile time through the power of babel macros
// You can also use createDetailedValidator to get error messages
const isNumberCat = createValidator<Cat<number>>()
isNumberCat({ breed: "tabby", isNice: false })                 // true
isNumberCat({ breed: "corgi", isNice: true, trinket: "toy" })  // false

Purpose

Because Typescript types are erased at compile time you can't use them to validate data at runtime. For example, you might want to ensure an API is returning data that matches a given type at runtime. This library (macro) generates validation functions for your Typescript types at compile time.

Why this macro?

Ease of Use

With typecheck.macro you can write normal Typescript types and automatically get validation functions for them. Other validation libraries require you to write your types in a DSL. Thus, typecheck.macro naturally integrates into your project without requiring you to change any existing code.

typecheck.macro supports a large portion of the Typescript type system (support table) so you can validate most of your existing types automatically.

typecheck.macro has features, such as comprehensive error messages and automatic detection and support of circular types, that other projects do not have.

Performance

typecheck.macro generates specialized validation functions that are pure Javascript at compile time. (Almost) every other library generates generic data structures that are plugged into a generic validator function.

typecheck.macro is up to 3x faster than ajv, the fastest JSON schema validator. And anywhere from 6 to 500 times faster than popular libraries, like runtypes or zod.

typecheck.macro is smart. It will analyze your type and determine the fastest/most minimal validation function that can validate your type. For example, the type "Hello" | string will automatically be simplified to string and the type A in type A = B | number; type B = string | C; type C = string will automatically be simplified to type A = string | number, and the appropriate validation code will be generated.

Installation

If you are using Gatsby or Create React App, you can just install the macro. No other steps needed!

Otherwise, you will need to switch over to compiling your Typescript with Babel. This isn't difficult since Babel has good Typescript support. See the example.

Step by Step Instructions

  1. Install dependencies for compiling Typescript with Babel and using macros. [pnpm|npm|yarn] install --save-dev @babel/core @babel/cli @babel/preset-typescript @babel/plugin-transform-modules-commonjs babel-plugin-macros typecheck.macro
    • @babel/plugin-transform-modules-commonjs is so export and import are turned into module.exports and require, so your code will work in Node.
  2. Add the file babel.config.json to the root of your project with the contents:
{
  "presets": ["@babel/preset-typescript"],
  "plugins": ["babel-plugin-macros", "@babel/plugin-transform-modules-commonjs"]
}
  1. Add the command babel src --out-dir dist --extensions \".ts\" to your "package.json". All typescript files in "src" will be compiled (with the macro enabled) to the dist directory.

Usage

Basic Usage

In addition to reading this, read the example.

import createValidator, { registerType } from 'typecheck.macro'

type A = {index: number, name: string}
registerType('A')
// named type
const validator = createValidator<A>()
// anonymous type
const validator2 = createValidator<{index: number, name: string}>()
// mix and match (anonymous type that contains a named type)
const validator3 = createValidator<{index: number, value: A}>()

registerType(typeName: string)

If you want to validate a named type or an anonymous type that references a named type, you must register the named type.

typeName is the name of the type you want to register. The type declaration must be in the same scope of the call to registerType.

{
    type A = {val: string}
    registerType('A') // registers A
    {
        registerType('A') // does nothing :(
    }
}
registerType('A') // does nothing :(

All registered types are stored in a per-file global namespace. This means any types you want to register in the same file should have different names.

registering a type in one file will not allow it to be accessible in another file. This means you cannot generate validators for multi-file types (a type that references a type imported from another file). If this is a big issue for you, go to the "Caveats" section.

A work-around for supporting multi-file types is to move your multi-file types into one file (so they are no longer multi-file types). Then generate the validation functions in that file and export to them where you want to use them. This works because validation functions are just normal Javascript!

registerType automatically registers all types in the same scope as the original type it is registering that are referred to by the original type.

type A = {val: string}
type B = {val: A}
type C = {val: A}
// registers A and B, but not C, since B only refers to A.
registerType('B')

All instances of the registerType macro are evaluated before any instance of createValidator. So ordering doesn't matter.

Most of the primitive types (string, number, etc.) are already registered for you. As are Array, Map, Set and their readonly equivalents.

createValidator<T>(opts?: BooleanOptions, userFuncs?: UserFunctions): (value: unknown) => value is T

Creates a validator function for the type T.

T can be any valid Typescript type/type expression that is supported by the macro.

At compile time, the call to createValidator will be replaced with the generated code.

BooleanOptions: {circularRefs?: boolean, allowForeignKeys?: boolean}

  • allowForeignKeys
    • Default: true.
    • If false, then any unexpected/extra keys in objects will throw a validation error. Note: If you are using a string index signature then there is no such thing as an extra key. And if you are using just a numeric index signature, then there is no such thing as an extra key with a numeric value. This is consistent with typescript.
  • circularRefs
    • Default: true
    • If false, then any circular references in the object will result in an infinite-loop at runtime. Note: circular types, such as type A = {next: A } | null will still work if this option is set to false. However, true circular references (instead of just another layer of nesting) in an input object will not work.

createDetailedValidator<T>(opts?: DetailedOptions, userFuncs?: UserFunctions)

Full type signature:

function createDetailedValidator<T>(
  opts?: DetailedOptions
): (
  value: unknown,
  errs: Array<[string, unknown, IR.IR | string]>
) => value is T;

Creates a detailed validator function for the type T. Example usage:

const v = createDetailedValidator<{x: string}>()
const errs = []
const result = v({x: 42}, errs) // result is false
// errors = [["input["x"]", 42, "type: string"]]

The resulting validation function takes 2 parameters:

  • value, the value you want to validate
  • errs, an array which will be populated with all the validation errors (if there are any). Each entry in errs is a tuple of 3 elements:
    • the path in the object at which validation failed (string)
    • the value at that path (any)
    • the expected value at that path

DetailedOptions: BooleanOptions & { expectedValueFormat: string }

  • expectedValueFormat
    • Default: "human-friendly"
    • If "human-friendly" then the expected value format will be a human friendly description of the types.
    • If "type-ir" then the expected value will be a JSON object representing the macro's internal representation of the expected type. It is not recommended to use this option because the internal representation is unstable and not bound by semver.

Constraints

What if you want to enforce arbitrary constraints at runtime? For example, ensure a number in an interface is always positive. You can do this with constraints. You can enforce an arbitary runtime constraint for any user-defined type (e.g not number, string, etc.).

The type of the 2nd parameter of both createValidator and createDetailedValidator:

type UserFunction = { constraints: { [typeName: string]: Function } }

Context

type NumberContainer = {
  pos: Positive;
}
type Positive = number;

With Boolean Validation

const x = createValidator<NumberContainer>(undefined, {
  constraints: {
    Positive: x => x > 0
  }
})

Notes:

  • The Positive key in the constraints object corresponds to the user-defined type Positive.
  • The value must be a function expression. It cannot be a variable that refers to a function because the macro is evaluated at compile time.
  • The constraint is only called after its base type has been validated. In this instance, the "Positive" constraint will only be called after input.pos is validated to be a number.

With Detailed Validation

const x = createDetailedValidator<NumberContainer>(undefined, {
  constraints: {
    Positive: x => x > 0 ? null : "expected a positive number"
  }
})

Note: The constraint function returns an error (if there is one). Otherwise it returns a falsy value. Any truthy value will be treated as an error message/object.

Support Tables

See the exec tests to get a good idea of what is supported

Primitives Types

Primitives Support
number Yes
string Yes
boolean Yes
object Yes
any Yes
unknown Yes
BigInt WIP
Symbol WIP

Builtin Generic Types

Type Support Notes
Array Yes
ReadonlyArray Yes Same as Array at runtime.
Map Yes
ReadonlyMap Yes Same as Map at runtime.
Set Yes
ReadonlySet Yes Same as Set at runtime.

Typescript Concepts

Language Features Support Notes
interface Yes extending another interface is WIP
type alias Yes
generics Yes
union types Yes
tuple types Yes
arrays Yes
index signatures Yes
literal types Yes
circular references Yes
parenthesis type expressions Yes
intersection types Yes One caveat (caveats)
Mapped Types WIP
Multi-file types iffy Requires CLI tool instead of macro
User-declared classes No

Performance Table

Notes:

  • The numbers are nanoseconds.
  • ajv is the current fastest JSON schema validator

Boolean Validator

Library Simple Complex Notes
typecheck.macro 46 105
ajv 108 331
io-ts 235
runtypes 357
zod 11471 zod throws an exception upon validation error, which resulted in this extreme case

Error Message Validator

Note: Out of all libraries, typecheck.macro has the most comprehensive error messages!

[Benchmarking is WIP]

Generate data with pnpm run bench:prep -- [simple|complex|complex2] and run a benchmark with pnpm run bench -- [macro|ajv|io-ts|runtypes|zod] --test=[simple|complex|complex2]

Caveats

  • typecheck.macro does not handle multi-file types. E.g if Foo imports Bar from another file, typecheck cannot generate a validator for it. registerType is file scoped.
    • If this is a significant problem, file a Github issue so I increase the priority of creating a CLI tool that can handle multi-file types.
  • typecheck.macro can intersect intersection types and intersection types with circular properties, but the following case is WIP: type Foo = {next: Foo} & {next : string}. In other words, you shouldn't intersect a circular property (like next) with another property. However, type Foo = {next: Foo} & {data: string} is totally fine.

Contributing

Read the contributor docs. Contributions are welcome and encouraged!