Cannot assign to 'X' because it is a read-only property (TS)

Cannot assign to 'X' because it is a read-only property (TS) #

The error "Cannot assign to 'X' because it is a read-only property" occurs when we try to change the value of a read-only property in a class or an object. To solve the error, remove the readonly modifier or use a type assertion to change the value of the property.

Here are two examples of how the error occurs.

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// 👇️ with classes
class Employee {
  readonly country: string = 'Germany';

  changeCountry() {
    // ⛔️ Error: Cannot assign to 'country' because
    // it is a read-only property.ts(2540)
    this.country = 'Chile';
  }
}

// 👇️ with objects
type Person = {
  readonly name: string;
};

const obj: Person = {
  name: 'James',
};

// ⛔️ Error: Cannot assign to 'name' because
// it is a read-only property.ts(2540)
obj.name = 'Frank';

The examples above use the readonly modifier to set the class and object properties to read-only and make them immutable.

To solve the error, remove the readonly modifier if you have access to the code where it's set.

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class Employee {
  country = 'Germany';

  changeCountry() {
    this.country = 'Chile';
  }
}

type Person = {
  name: string;
};

const obj: Person = {
  name: 'James',
};

obj.name = 'Frank';

If you can't remove the readonly modifier, but need to change the value of the readonly property, you can use a type assertion.

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class Employee {
  readonly country: string = 'Germany';

  changeCountry() {
    (this.country as any) = 'Chile';
  }
}

type Person = {
  readonly name: string;
};

const obj: Person = {
  name: 'James',
};

(obj.name as any) = 'Frank';

We used type assertions to cast the read-only properties to any, so we can still change their value.

You can also be more specific and cast the readonly property to the type of the value in the assignment, which is a bit better.

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class Employee {
  readonly country: string = 'Germany';

  changeCountry() {
    (this.country as string) = 'Chile';
  }
}

type Person = {
  readonly name: string;
};

const obj: Person = {
  name: 'James',
};

(obj.name as string) = 'Frank';

If that's the situation you're in, there is most likely a method that the library exports that is used to mutate its state and it shouldn't be done directly by changing the state object.

If you need a way where a class property cannot that be changed from the outside, and can only be changed from within the class, you can set the property as protected and use a getter.

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class Employee {
  protected _country = 'Germany';

  get country(): string {
    return this._country;
  }

  changeCountry() {
    this._country = 'Chile';
  }
}

const employee = new Employee();

console.log(employee.country); // 👉️ "Germany"

// ⛔️ Cannot assign to 'country' because
// it is a read-only property.ts(2540)
employee.country = 'Belgium';

Protected class properties can only be accessed from within the class and subclasses of the class.

That's why we added a getter, which allows access from outside the class.

You could also mark the changeCountry method as protected or change the _country property from the class's constructor method. How you implement this depends on your use case.

Conclusion #

The error "Cannot assign to 'X' because it is a read-only property" occurs when we try to change the value of a read-only property in a class or an object. To solve the error, remove the readonly modifier or use a type assertion to change the value of the property.