Declare local variable as optional

Every time I type an undefinable variable, I think I typed something wrong:

let a: string | undefined;

Why do I think I did something wrong? It’s because I never add undefined type to a union type as above except in variable declarations.

Don’t you think it is time, introduce the optional operator to local variable declarations as well?

let a?: string;

The above syntax feel very natural and idiomatic typescript for me.

[fwd079]

Every time I type an undefinable variable, I think I typed something wrong:

let a: string | undefined;

Why do I think I did something wrong? It’s because I never add undefined type to a union type as above except in variable declarations.

Don’t you think it is time, introduce the optional operator to local variable declarations as well?

let a?: string;

The above syntax feel very natural and idiomatic typescript for me.

I just tried using let s? : string = null; and failed miserably. lol

Guess till it is done let s: string | null; has to suffice. But voting for let s? : string = null; please.

Regards.

[adevine]

While this is an old issue I just thought I’d leave a note here in case anyone else finds this. A lot of libraries make this optional syntax nicer using generics. For example, defining Maybe as

type Maybe<T> = T | null;

which then lets you do things like let foo: Maybe<string> = null; It’s not really saving on characters but I think it reads nicer. Could also do something like

type Nullish<T> = T | null | undefined;

and

type Opt<T> = T | undefined;