DEVELOPER INSIGHT

TypeScript: Benefits and Best Practices in Web Development

At Acro Commerce, we are big fans of life-long learning. Honing our expertise by expanding our knowledge base is critical to being the best we can be for our clients and their web development projects. Ariel Flores, a software developer at Acro, teaches us about TypeScript and the benefits it can bring to your projects.

Like other developers on my team, my first real exposure to TypeScript was when I joined the Gesso team. While I am confident that I understand its uses and its advantages now, this wasn't always the case. That’s why I believe it is important to discuss the many advantages of TypeScript over JavaScript and some best practices for developers using it. 

What is TypeScript?

“TypeScript is a strongly typed programming language that builds on JavaScript, giving you better tooling at any scale.” - TypeScript

What is JavaScript?

“JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at — displaying timely content updates, interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, etc. — you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved.” - Mozilla, MDN Web Doc

First and foremost, it's important to mention that learning TypeScript is usually a smooth process for JavaScript developers, given that all of JavaScript’s functionalities, as well as some additional TypeScript-specific features, are found within TypeScript.  

Reasons We Use TypeScript in Web Development

Let's discuss some TypeScript-specific features that make it a preferred option when working with large web development projects. 

Type Safety and Static Typing

TypeScript introduces typing or categorizing for different kinds of data. This allows developers to define types for variables, functions, and return values. This helps catch type-related errors at compile-time rather than runtime, providing an additional layer of safety. In large projects with multiple developers, static typing can significantly reduce the likelihood of type-related bugs.

Code Readability

TypeScript's explicit type annotations improve code readability. With clearly defined types, developers can better understand the structure of data and function, leading to code that’s easier to read, understand, and maintain. This becomes increasingly important as codebases grow in size.

Ease of Refactoring

TypeScript's static typing aids in refactoring, that is, restructuring code to improve readability, maintainability, and performance. Developers can confidently make changes to the codebase, knowing that the type system helps catch potential issues and ensures a smoother refactoring process.

Collaboration Between Multiple Developers

In most projects, collaboration is essential. TypeScript's static typing ensures better communication among team members, as the types serve as a kind of documentation. This makes it easier for developers to understand each other's code, reducing the chances of introducing errors to the project.

Limiting Runtime Errors

By catching errors at compile-time, TypeScript helps reduce the number of runtime errors that occur when executing a program with invalid operations that were not detected during compilation. This is important in large projects since identifying and fixing errors in production can be time-consuming and complicated.

TypeScript Best Practices for Developers

Now that we have a better understanding of the reasons why TypeScript is so popular let’s discuss some of its best practices.

Use Strong Typing

TypeScript's main benefit is its typing system, which allows developers to catch potential errors during development. By specifying types for variables, parameters, and return values, you improve code clarity and enable the TypeScript compiler to provide more accurate feedback. Avoid the use of the “any“ type as much as possible, as it undermines the benefits of static typing. Strong typing enhances code maintainability, reduces bugs, and improves collaboration within the development team.

Avoid "any" Type

As mentioned in the previous point, the “any” type should be avoided when possible, as it basically opts out of TypeScript's typing features. It can be convenient in certain situations, such as during the migration of JavaScript code to TypeScript, but too much use of “any” reduces the benefits of type checking. Instead, aim to define specific types for variables, function parameters, and return values to provide clear rules for your code. This approach enhances code predictability and facilitates a smoother development process.

Use Interfaces and Types

Interfaces and types in TypeScript offer powerful tools for defining the shape of objects, functions, and data structures. Interfaces are useful for describing the structure of objects, while types can represent various data shapes, including primitive types, unions, and generics. These features allow code consistency and readability, making it easier for developers to understand and work with different parts of the codebase. Interfaces and types serve as documentation, aiding in the maintenance and evolution of your TypeScript projects.

Avoid Global Variables

Minimizing the use of global variables is a must in software development. This reduces the risk of naming conflicts. In TypeScript, consider encapsulating functionality within modules or classes rather than relying on global variables. This approach improves code maintainability, makes testing easier, and reduces the possibility of unintended side effects. By using the principle of encapsulation, you create more modular and self-contained components that are easier to integrate into different parts of your application.

Destructuring and Rest/Spread

TypeScript supports destructuring assignments. This allows you to extract values from objects or arrays and assign them to variables concisely. Additionally, the rest and spread operators provide convenient ways to work with an object or array's remaining or spreading elements. This feature contributes to cleaner code, which improves readability. Destructuring is especially useful when dealing with complex data structures, allowing developers to extract and manipulate specific parts of the data.

Async/Await for Promises

The async/await syntax in TypeScript simplifies asynchronous code by providing a more readable and synchronous structure for handling promises. This syntactic sugar builds upon the underlying promise-based approach, making it easier to reason about and maintain asynchronous code. When working with operations that return promises, such as API requests or database queries, I prefer using async/await over traditional promise chaining or callback-based approaches. This enhances code readability and reduces the likelihood of introducing errors related to promise handling. Additionally, async/await simplifies error handling, making catching and handling exceptions in asynchronous code more straightforward.

While this does not cover all of TypeScript's many benefits, it gives a good overview of some of its features and can be helpful for other developers who are first encountering it.

I do not doubt that, just like my teammates and I, you will learn to understand why this language is so popular. 

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