Error while replacing identifier of a PropertyAccessExpression

Hey @dsherret, long time no talk! How’s it going?

I’m back doing ts transforms (yay!), but ran into an issue while trying to replace the object name (expression) in a PropertyAccessExpression.

I’m basically trying to convert that.something to this.something, but if the there are 4 chained PropertyAccessExpressions, I get an error. Try running this code:

import Project, { Identifier, PropertyAccessExpression, SyntaxKind, TypeGuards } from 'ts-simple-ast';

const project = new Project();
const sourceFile = project.createSourceFile( 'my-file.ts', `
	that.something.something2.something3;   // <-- too nested!
` );


const thatDotSomething: PropertyAccessExpression = sourceFile
	.getDescendantsOfKind( SyntaxKind.PropertyAccessExpression )
	.find( propAccess => TypeGuards.isIdentifier( propAccess.getExpression() ) )!;

const thatIdentifier = thatDotSomething.getExpression() as Identifier;
thatIdentifier.replaceWithText( 'this' );

console.log( sourceFile.getFullText() );

I get the error: Error: Error replacing tree: Should not have more children left over.

Oddly enough, when I remove one property and change that.something.something2.something3 to that.something.something2, the code works fine.

Can you take a look into this? Thanks!

[gregjacobs]

@dsherret Thanks for the quick fix! Definitely good to be back - I really love this stuff and I missed it 😃

Very good to know about the return value from replaceWithText() - didn’t realize that it did that. Many thanks, and keep up the great work!

[dsherret]

Hey @gregjacobs! I’ve been doing well thanks. I hope you have been too. Nice to see you back, but sorry that it’s because of a bug!

Thanks for reporting this. I’ve fixed it now in 12.6.1 (available now). Just use the return value of replaceWithText to get the new ThisKeyword as the previous Identifier will be forgotten.

const thatIdentifier = ...;
const thisKeyword = thatIdentifier.replaceWithText("this");

thatIdentifier.getText(); // throws because node was forgotten since the kind changed
thisKeyword.getText();    // ok