How to avoid name clash with basic type keywords in TypeScript

[svdHero]

Hi there,

I have only started with TypeScript and front-end development recently and I discovered the decoders package just now.
Quick question: What is the recommend way to import the basic decoders such as object, number, string, etc.? All these are built-in TypeScript keywords. Should I just rename the imports or is there any better technique?

Maybe this question could also become a feature request for export the basic decoders with some wrapper object called JsonDecoders which can then be imported and used like JsonDecoders.object, JsonDecoders.number, JsonDecoders.string, etc.
Just for convenience when using IDEs with auto-import, e.g. VSCode.

[nvie]

You should be able to just use them by importing them like so:

import { object, string, Decoder } from 'decoders';

type Thing = {
  name: string
};

const thingDecoder: Decoder<Thing> = object({
  name: string,
});

The string on L4 is used in a type position, whereas the string on L8 is used in a value position, so they won’t ever conflict! 🙂

If you configured your editor with TypeScript support, autocomplete should already work for these imports.

If you prefer to import them on a single object, you can use:

import * as d from 'decoders';

const thingDecoder: Decoder<Thing> = d.object({
  name: d.string,
});

But I prefer the former.

[svdHero]

Thanks, I actually like the import * as d from 'decoders' to be more explicite. I'll go with

import * as decoders from "decoders"

to help me distinguish between type number and decoder decoder.number, etc. mentally. My nooby brain needs this. 😆