Arrays

Array types are simply instantiations of a special polymorphic Array class: the type Array<T> describes arrays whose elements are of type T. The shorthand syntax T[] is equivalent to Array<T>.

Type Annotating Arrays#

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/* @flow */
var a = [1, 2, 3];
var b: Array<number> = a.map(function(x) { return x + 1; });

In this code, we create an array with the literal [1, 2, 3], and call a method map on it, getting another array whose type we annotate as Array<number>.

Array Elements#

Interestingly, the element type of an array is not fixed: it is a supertype of the types of all elements written into the array. Just like other polymorphic classes, array types are invariant in their element types.

For example:

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/* @flow */
var a = [];
for (var i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
  if (i % 2 == 0) {
    a[i] = 0;
  } else {
    a[i] = '';
  };
}

function foo(i): string { return a[i]; }

Running Flow produces the following error:

example.js:5:14,14: number
This type is incompatible with
 example.js:11:18,23: string

The type of a is not pinned to Array<number> by the element write a[i] = 0 at line 4: if it did, Flow would report an error for an incompatible element write a[i] = '' at line 5. Instead, based on lines 4 and 5, the type of a becomes Array<T> where T is number or string. Since it is impossible to know which element is read on line 11, Flow must account for the possibility that it could be number, in which case it would be incompatible with the string annotation, as reported.

Exporting Arrays#

When an array is exported, its element type must be specified. This effectively “seals” the element type.

Tuples#

Tuples types represent fixed length JavaScript arrays with known types for each element. So while the type Array<number> represents a JavaScript array with unknown length where each element has the type number, the type [number, string] represents a JavaScript array of length 2 where the first element is a number and the second element is a string.

More generally, given types T0, T1, …, Tn, the tuple type [T0, T1, ..., Tn] represents an array of length n + 1, where the element at index k has the type Tk, assuming 0 <= k <= n.

Syntax#

Tuples are arrays, so they are declared like array literals

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[<type1>, <type2>, <type3>, ...]

Example#

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/* @flow */
function mult_first_and_third(tup: [string, number, boolean, number]): number {
  return tup[1] * tup[3];
}
mult_first_and_third(["1", 1, true, "positive"])

5: mult_first_and_third(["1", 1, true, "positive"])
                                       ^ string. This type is incompatible with
2: function mult_first_and_third(tup: [string, number, boolean, number]): number {
                                                                ^ number

Found 1 errors

Arity#

The arity (i.e. length) of a tuple is strictly enforced, so that Flow can be relatively confident that a tuple of length N is actually an array with length N. This has a few consequences.

An Array<T> type cannot flow to a tuple, since we don’t know the array’s length

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function array_to_tuple(arr: Array<number>): [number, number] {
  return arr;
}

2:   return arr;
            ^ array type. Only tuples and array literals with known elements can flow to
1: function array_to_tuple(arr: Array<number>): [number, number] {
                                                ^ tuple type

Found 1 errors

You cannot use Array.prototype methods that mutate the tuple

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function mutate_tuple(tup: [number]): void {
  const str = tup.join(', '); // OK
  tup.push(123); // Error
}

3:   tup.push(123); // Error
         ^ property `push`. Property not found in
3:   tup.push(123); // Error
     ^ $ReadOnlyArray

Found 1 errors

A tuple type cannot flow to an Array<T> type, since then you could mutate the tuple in an unsafe way.

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function tuple_to_array(tup: [number]): Array<number> {
  return tup;
}

2:   return tup;
            ^ tuple type. This type is incompatible with the expected return type of
1: function tuple_to_array(tup: [number]): Array<number> {
                                           ^ array type

Found 1 errors

A tuple type cannot flow to a longer tuple type.

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function short_to_long(tup: [number]): [number, void] {
  return tup;
}

2:   return tup;
            ^ tuple type. Tuple arity mismatch. This tuple has 1 elements and cannot flow to the 2 elements of
1: function short_to_long(tup: [number]): [number, void] {
                                          ^ tuple type

Found 1 errors

A tuple type cannot flow to a shorter tuple type.

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function long_to_short(tup: [number, number]): [number] {
  return tup;
}

2:   return tup;
            ^ tuple type. Tuple arity mismatch. This tuple has 2 elements and cannot flow to the 1 elements of
1: function long_to_short(tup: [number, number]): [number] {
                                                  ^ tuple type

Found 1 errors

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