Control Flow Analysis

Control Flow Analysis in TypeScript is a way to statically analyze the code flow to infer the types of variables, allowing the compiler to narrow the types of those variables as needed, based on the results of the analysis.

Prior to TypeScript 4.4, code flow analysis would only be applied to code within an if statement, but from TypeScript 4.4, it can also be applied to conditional expressions and discriminant property accesses indirectly referenced through const variables.

For example:

const f1 = (x: unknown) => {
    const isString = typeof x === 'string';
    if (isString) {
        x.length;
    }
};

const f2 = (
    obj: { kind: 'foo'; foo: string } | { kind: 'bar'; bar: number }
) => {
    const isFoo = obj.kind === 'foo';
    if (isFoo) {
        obj.foo;
    } else {
        obj.bar;
    }
};

Some examples where narrowing does not occur:

const f1 = (x: unknown) => {
    let isString = typeof x === 'string';
    if (isString) {
        x.length; // Error, no narrowing because isString it is not const
    }
};

const f6 = (
    obj: { kind: 'foo'; foo: string } | { kind: 'bar'; bar: number }
) => {
    const isFoo = obj.kind === 'foo';
    obj = obj;
    if (isFoo) {
        obj.foo; // Error, no narrowing because obj is assigned in function body
    }
};

Notes: Up to five levels of indirection are analyzed in conditional expressions.