5 Reasons to Use TypeScript with React
Know the benefits you can gain by using TypeScript with React
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript which primarily provides optional static typing, classes, and interfaces.
Over the past few years, TypeScript has gain immense popularity among frontend developers. Improved maintainability, code consistency, and future browser support are few reasons behind its success. Though many other frameworks and libraries adopt TypeScript by default, React remained neutral, giving the developers the option to choose between TypeScript and JavaScript.
In this article, I will be going through 5 strong reasons for you to consider TypeScript for React applications. Besides, I will also highlight common challenges for you to better prepare for the journey.
Also, here’s a Tip to those who want to introduce TS but don’t have the time or energy to do so: Using Bit (Github) you can create, compose, and publish decoupled React components with or without TS. This means you can start introducing TS into an existing React app, one component at a time.
1. Easy to read and understand components
With TypeScript, it’s easy to define Prop types, making the code much easier to read and use. And this will accompany by IntelliSense support plus static type checking.
These, in combination, make it a great development experience and reduce the potential for bugs. Besides, adding comments to Prop types also adds more readability when you check a component definition.
2. Better support for JSX
Another additional benefit of TypeScript + React is that it provides better IntelliSense, code completion for JSX.
Tip: Share your reusable components between projects using Bit (Github).
Bit makes it simple to share, document, and reuse independent components between projects. Use it to maximize code reuse, keep a consistent design, collaborate as a team, speed delivery, and build apps that scale.
Bit supports Node, TypeScript, React, Vue, Angular, and more.
3. Default TypeScript support for common libraries
If you used TypeScript several years ago, you might have felt the pain of searching Type support for third-party libraries. But with TypeScript becoming rapidly popular now, most of the commonly used libraries are supported with Type Definitions. Besides, the React library ecosystem already supports Type Definitions, where you don’t need to worry about it anymore.
4. Gradual adoption for existing projects
Going for TypeScript is not an on-off switch. It is instead a gradual adaptation depending on the current condition of the project. Suppose you have decided to use TypeScript for an ongoing React project. In that case, you need to look at how you can use JavaScript and TypeScript side by side and gradually increase the TypeScript coverage.
Besides, You can configure the TypeScript compiler options for the gradual transition. For a list of compiler options, refer here.
5. Benefits comes with Static type checking and IntelliSense in general
Static Type checking
Static Type checking helps to identify errors earlier. The above example correctly identifies that the getDetails function requires a string as an argument rather than a number.
Better IntelliSense
When we take TypeScript static Type checking and IntelliSense together, it gives you the confidence that IntelliSense is 100% accurate.
Better Refactoring
With TypeScript, refactoring is much easier since we know the exact Types and where to change them. And early detection of that something went wrong will ensure that you are not breaking anything.
Less amount of undefined errors
The risk of appearing Undefined errors at runtime is less since the TypeScript compiler also detects them at transpile time.
Better readability and maintainability
With Type Definitions, the codebase will be much readable and maintainable. You can easily follow object-oriented programming principles and use the constructs like Interfaces to structure your code with the least coupling.
Challenges to overcome when using TypeScript
Since we have already discussed the opportunities that come with TypeScript, let’s get to know the challenges to be better prepared for TypeScript adoption.
Learning curve
The learning curve could be one of the difficulties of starting with TypeScript, especially if your team comes from a vanilla JavaScript background. In this case, the best option is to go for a gradual adaptation, as described above.
But if the team is familiar with strongly typed languages, for example, Java or C#, learning Typescript is relatively straight forward.
A third party Library could be missing Type Definitions
Since TypeScript has already gained popularity, this is a rare case. However, if you come across a Library without the Definitions, TypeScript official documentation provides a good guideline. Refer here.
Compilation time
Since the source code building has to go through another layer of transpiling, it will, of course, add another few milliseconds of extra time. But this will not be noticeable most of the time. And compared to the benefits it adds for development experience and less prone to bugs, this will outweighs the downside that it takes more time.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading the article this far. In conclusion, we can see that it’s a good idea to consider adding TypeScript for your next React project. You can even consider migrating your existing React project to TypeScript.
Besides, I would always love to hear from you. If you have any comments or questions, don’t forget to mention them down below.
Cheers !!! Happy Coding !!!
