Argument type 'X' not assignable to parameter of type 'Y'

Argument type 'X' not assignable to parameter of type 'Y' #

The error "Argument of type 'X' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Y'" occurs when the passed in argument and the expected parameter types are incompatible. To solve the error, use a type assertion or a type guard to verify the argument is of a compatible type.

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

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function doubleNumber(num: number) {
  return num * 2;
}

// ⛔️ Error: Argument of type 'string' is not assignable
// to parameter of type 'number'.ts(2345)
doubleNumber('hello');

The function takes a parameter of type number, but we are passing it an argument of type string.

For example, you could widen the type of the function's parameter to be number or string.

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function getNumberOrString(numOrStr: number | string) {
  return numOrStr;
}

getNumberOrString('hello');

If you are certain that the specific value has a compatible type, but TypeScript doesn't know about it, use a type assertion, e.g. value as RightType, when calling the function.

If you just want to turn off type checking when calling the function, you can use a type assertion with the any type.

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function getString(str: string) {
  return str;
}

const str = 'Hello';

getString(str as unknown as any); // 👈️ type assertion

Here is another example of how the error occurs.

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interface Employee {
  id: number;
  name?: string; // 👈️ optional (might be undefined)
}

function getEmployeeName(name: string) {
  return name;
}

const emp: Employee = { id: 1, name: 'Alice' };

// ⛔️ Argument of type 'string | undefined' is not assignable
//to parameter of type 'string'.
// Type 'undefined' is not assignable to type 'string'.ts(2345)
getEmployeeName(emp.name);

The name property is marked as optional in the Employee interface.

The name parameter is of type string, so it only expects to get assigned a string.

Here are a couple of examples of how you can solve the error.

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interface Employee {
  id: number;
  name?: string; // 👈️ optional (might be undefined)
}

function getEmployeeName(name: string) {
  return name;
}

const emp: Employee = { id: 1, name: 'Alice' };

getEmployeeName(emp.name as string); // 👈️ type assertion

Type assertions are used when we have information about the type of a value that TypeScript can't know about.

We effectively tell TypeScript that emp.name will be a string and not to worry about it.

An alternative and much better approach is to use a type guard.

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interface Employee {
  id: number;
  name?: string; // 👈️ optional (might be undefined)
}

function getEmployeeName(name: string) {
  return name;
}

const emp: Employee = { id: 1, name: 'Alice' };

const empName: string = typeof emp.name === 'string' ? emp.name : '';
getEmployeeName(empName);

We used a ternary operator to check if the name property has a type of string.

If the property has a type of string, it gets assigned to the empName variable, otherwise we use an empty string as a fallback.

In more complex scenarios, you can use an if statement as a type guard.

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interface Employee {
  id: number;
  name?: string; // 👈️ optional (might be undefined)
}

function getEmployeeName(name: string) {
  return name;
}

const emp: Employee = { id: 1, name: 'Alice' };

if (typeof emp.name === 'string') {
  const result = getEmployeeName(emp.name);
  console.log(result); // 👉️ "Alice"
}

In the if statement, we check if the emp.name property has a type of string and if it does, we pass it as an argument to the getEmployeeName function.

When working with objects, it's harder to make sure that the argument and the function's parameter are compatible types.

You can use a user-defined type guard to make sure that an object is of the expected type.

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type Employee = {
  id: number;
  name: string;
};

function getEmployee(emp: Employee) {
  return emp;
}

// 👇️ typed as unknown
const obj: unknown = {
  id: 1,
  name: 'Tom',
};

// 👇️ checks if passed in object is type Employee
function isEmployee(obj: any): obj is Employee {
  return (
    typeof obj === 'object' && obj !== null && 'id' in obj && 'name' in obj
  );
}

if (isEmployee(obj)) {
  // 👉️ obj has type Employee here
  const result = getEmployee(obj);
  console.log(result); // 👉️ {id: 1, name: 'Tom'}
}

We used a user-defined type guard to check if an object contains specific properties before passing it as an argument to the function.

If the isEmployee function returns true, TypeScript knows that the passed in value is of type Employee and allows us to access all properties and methods on the specific interface.

The example above simply checks if the passed-in value is an object that contains the id and name properties.

If you need to check if a specific value is an array before passing it as an argument to a function, use the Array.isArray method.

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type Employee = {
  id: number;
  name: string;
  salary: number;
};

const emps: unknown = [
  { id: 1, name: 'Tom', salary: 100 },
  { id: 2, name: 'Ben', salary: 200 },
  { id: 3, name: 'Bob', salary: 300 },
];

function getEmployees(emps: Employee[]) {
  return emps;
}

if (Array.isArray(emps)) {
  getEmployees(emps as Employee[]);
}

We used the Array.isArray() method to check if the emps variable stores an array before the assignment.

You might have to be more strict and check if the array has any elements and whether they contain specific properties, etc.

The cause of the "Argument of type 'X' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Y'" error is that the type of the function's parameter and the type of the passed in argument are not compatible.

So, depending on your use case, you could also solve the error by updating the type of the function's parameter and making the parameter and the passed in argument compatible types.

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type Employee = {
  id: number;
  name: string;
};

type Developer = {
  name: string;
  language: string;
};

// 👇️ parameter type is Employee or Developer
function getEmployee(emp: Employee | Developer) {
  return emp;
}

// 👇️ argument type is also Employee | Developer
const person: Employee | Developer =
  Math.random() > 0.5
    ? { id: 1, name: 'Bob' }
    : { name: 'Alice', language: 'TypeScript' };

getEmployee(person);

The function's parameter is of type Employee or Developer and the passed-in argument is also of type Employee or Developer. We don't get a type checking error because the two types are compatible.

Conclusion #

The error "Argument of type 'X' is not assignable to parameter of type 'Y'" occurs when the passed-in argument and the expected parameter types are incompatible. To solve the error, use a type assertion or a type guard to verify the argument is of a compatible type.