Switch for specific type in TypeScript

for the time being it looks like there are a few options, all of them with some drawbacks

• discriminated unions docs stackblitz, but you’ll need a dedicated property as discriminator

interface Action {}

class SpecificAction implements Action {
  kind: "specific";
  payload?: any;
}

class ToggleAction implements Action {
  kind: "toggle";
  toggle: boolean;
}

let action: SpecificAction | ToggleAction;
switch (action.kind) {
  case "specific":
    console.log(action.payload) // it works 
    break;
  case "toggle":
    console.log(action.toggle) // it works 
    break;        
}

• User-Defined Type Guards docs stackblitz, but you’ll need if statements instead of switch

interface Action {}

class SpecificAction implements Action {
  payload?: any;
}

class ToggleAction implements Action {
  toggle: boolean;
}

let isSpecific = (p: any): p is SpecificAction => !!p.payload
let isToggle = (p: any): p is ToggleAction => !!p.toggle

let action: Action;
if (isSpecific(action)) {
  console.log(action.payload) // it works 
} else if (isToggle(action)) {
  console.log(action.toggle) // it works 
}

• constructor property github stackblitz, but you’ll need to cast to desired type for the time being

interface Action { }

class SpecificAction implements Action {
  payload?: any;
}

class ToggleAction implements Action {
  toggle: boolean;
}

switch (action.constructor) {
  case SpecificAction:
    console.log((<SpecificAction>action).payload) // it kinda works 
    break;
  case ToggleAction:
    console.log((<ToggleAction>action).toggle) // it kinda works 
    break;
  }