109

I am new to TypeScript. I've got a problem with displaying this.state.something inside the render method or assigning it to a variable inside a function.

Have a look at the most important piece of code:

interface State {
    playOrPause?: string;
}

class Player extends React.Component {
    constructor() {
        super();

        this.state = {
            playOrPause: 'Play'
        };
    }

    render() {
        return(
            <div>
                <button
                    ref={playPause => this.playPause = playPause}
                    title={this.state.playOrPause} // in this line I get an error
                    >
                    Play
                </button>
           </div>
        );
    }
}

The errors says: [ts] Property 'playOrPause' does not exist on type 'ReadOnly<{}>'.

I tried to declare the playOrPause property to be a type of string and it didn't work.

What am I missing here to make it work?

1

3 Answers 3

192

You need to declare that your component is using the State interface, it used by Typescript's Generics.

interface IProps {
}

interface IState {
  playOrPause?: string;
}

class Player extends React.Component<IProps, IState> {
  // ------------------------------------------^
  constructor(props: IProps) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      playOrPause: 'Play'
    };
  }

  render() {
    return(
      <div>
        <button
          ref={playPause => this.playPause = playPause}
          title={this.state.playOrPause} // in this line I get an error
        >
          Play
        </button>
      </div>
    );
  }
}
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

11 Comments

Thanks. It works now. I tried to declare only IState interface and declare that class Player is using IState only (It still doesn't work then) But when I declare that empty interface called IProps together with IState then it works fine. Why is that?
There is a meaning of the Generics position, the first position should indicate the props type, and the second is the state.
if the state is declared outside the constructor state = { playOrPause: 'Play' } typescript doesn't validate it against IState. Why is it so?
How outside of the constructor?
@RahulYadav if you do that you can just do state: IState = {...} and drop it from the generic props. It will be inferred.
|
55

In case anyone is wondering how to implement it in functional components with hooks ( not in a class):

const [value, setValue] = useState<number>(0);

useState is a generic function, that means that it can accept a type parameter. This type-parameter will tell TypeScript which types are acceptable for this state.

1 Comment

This is only valid for a function in react, not a class. I've learned this painful lesson.
4

In my case ( working with TypeScript, and the state value was actually a boolean ) I've had the same problem, I've fixed it by passing the state value I wanted to mark as output to String():

import React, { Component } from 'react';

interface ITestProps {
  name: string;
}

interface ITestState {
  toggle: boolean;
}

class Test extends Component<ITestProps, ITestState> {
  constructor(props: ITestProps) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      toggle: false,
    };

    this.onClick = this.onClick.bind(this);
  }

  onClick() {
    this.setState((previousState, props) => ({
      toggle: !previousState.toggle,
    }));
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div>
        Hello, {this.props.name}!
        <br />
        Toggle state is: {String(this.state.toggle)}
      </div>
    )
  }
}

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.