Typescript primitive types: any difference between the types "number" and "Number" (is TSC case-insensitive)?

Cesco picture Cesco · Mar 18, 2013 · Viewed 31.4k times · Source

I meant to write a parameter of type number, but I misspelled the type, writing Number instead.

On my IDE (JetBrains WebStorm) the type Number is written with the same color that is used for the primitive type number, while if I write a name of a class (known or unknown) it uses a different color, so I guess that somehow it recognizes the misspelled type as a correct/almost-correct/sort-of-correct type.

When I compile the code, instead of complaining for example that the compiler couldn't found a class named Number, TSC writes this error message:

Illegal property access

Does that mean that number and Number both co-exists as different types?

If this is true, which is the difference between those classes?

If this is not the case, then why it simply didn't write the same error message it displays for unknown classes ("The name 'Number' does not exist in the current scope")

This is the code:

class Test
{
    private myArray:string[] = ["Jack", "Jill", "John", "Joe", "Jeff"];

    // THIS WORKS
    public getValue(index:number):string
    {
        return this.myArray[index];
    }

    // THIS DOESN'T WORK: ILLEGAL PROPERTY ACCESS
    public getAnotherValue(index:Number):string
    {
        return this.myArray[index]; 
    }
}

Answer

Shaun Luttin picture Shaun Luttin · Mar 7, 2017

To augment Ryan's answer with guidance from the TypeScript Do's and Don'ts:

Don't ever use the types Number, String, Boolean, Symbol, or Object These types refer to non-primitive boxed objects that are almost never used appropriately in JavaScript code.

/* WRONG */
function reverse(s: String): String;

Do use the types number, string, boolean, and symbol.

/* OK */
function reverse(s: string): string;