In target: ES5, Base class constructor's primitive return value should be ignored

Bug Report

🔎 Search Terms

class, extends, constructor, return primitive

🕗 Version & Regression Information

• This is the behavior in every version I tried, and I reviewed the FAQ for entries about class constructors

⏯ Playground Link

Playground link with relevant code

💻 Code

new class extends class {
  constructor() {
    return 1;
  }
} {
  constructor() {
    super();
    console.log(typeof this);
  }
}

🙁 Actual behavior

Logs “number”

🙂 Expected behavior

Logs “object”

[fatcerberus]

You probably should have specified that this only happens with ES5-downleveled code. From the OP it seemed like you meant this happened regardless of target (which would indicate it was just normal JS behavior).

[Josh-Cena]

I can guess the historical context here (tsc implementing classes before the latter getting standardized), but IMO the current behavior doesn’t benefit anyone and is unlikely to be relied on. If this is a primitive, it means you can’t mutate it whatsoever. Unless you do something really weird like:

function SomethingThatReturnsEitherObjectOrNumberIDK() {
  if (somethingNotGoingWell) return 1;
  return {
    the: "actual object that I want to construct",
  };
}

declare class SomethingThatReturnsEitherObjectOrNumberIDK {
  the?: string;
}

new class extends SomethingThatReturnsEitherObjectOrNumberIDK {
  constructor() {
    super();
    if (typeof this === "number")
      return { the: `number wrapped into an object: ${this}` }; // type: { the: never }
  }
}

But that doesn’t even get correct types! Why would someone use tsc, choose its bizarre subclassing behavior, but also disregard the types?

Built-in subclassing not working is a missed but understandable tradeoff, but this one seems niche and not as breaking-change-prone, while increasing tsc’s conformance.