Conversion of type 'X' to type 'Y' may be a mistake in TS

# Conversion of type 'X' to type 'Y' may be a mistake in TS

The error "Conversion of type 'X' to type 'Y' may be a mistake because neither type sufficiently overlaps with the other" occurs when we use a type assertion with incompatible types.

To solve the error, widen the type to unknown first, e.g. myVar as unknown as MyType.

conversion of type to type may be mistake

Here is an example of how the error occurs.

index.ts

Copied!
const num = 5;

// ⛔️ Error: Conversion of type 'number' to type 'string'
// may be a mistake because neither type sufficiently overlaps
// with the other. If this was intentional, convert the
//expression to 'unknown' first.ts(2352)
const str: string = num as string;

conversion of type to type may be mistake because neither type

The cause of the error is that the num variable stores a value of type number, so we aren't allowed to use a type assertion with an incompatible type such as string.

# Widen the type to `unknown` to solve the error

To solve the error, widen the number's type to unknown first and then narrow it down to string.

index.ts

Copied!
const num = 5;

const str: string = num as unknown as string;

widen type to unknown to solve the error

The code for this article is available on GitHub

We widened the type of the num variable to unknown. The unknown type is the type-safe counterpart of any.

All types are assignable to the unknown type.

We had to widen the type to unknown first because values of type number and not assignable to values of type string and vice versa.

For example, if the TypeScript compiler thinks that the num variable might be of type number or string, it would allow us to use a type assertion directly.

index.ts

Copied!
// 👇️ const numOrStr: "bobbyhadz" | 100
const numOrStr = Math.random() > 0.5 ? 'bobbyhadz' : 100;

// ✅ Works fine
const str: string = numOrStr as string;

using type assertion directly

The numOrStr variable might be a string or a number but we are still able to use a type assertion with the string type because the types string and string | number overlap.

We are basically narrowing the type of the numOrStr variable fromstring | number to string which is allowed because there is some overlap.

Similarly, if you have a more specific value with a literal type, you are able to use a type assertion to widen its type.

index.ts

Copied!
// 👇️ const num: 42
const num = 42;

// 👇️ const result: number
const result = num as number;

The code for this article is available on GitHub

The num variable has a literal type of 42.

We can use a type assertion to widen its type to number, because there is an overlap between the types (42 is a number).

However, if there is no overlap between the types, we have to widen the type to unknown before we can use a type assertion to an incompatible type.

index.ts

Copied!
const num = 42;

// 👇️ const result: string
const result = num as unknown as string;

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

There are many valid use cases for widening a value's type to unknown, so we can use a type assertion with an incompatible type, e.g. incorrect typings of third-party modules.

The code for this article is available on GitHub

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

I wrote a book in which I share everything I know about how to become a better, more efficient programmer.

You can use the search field on my Home Page to filter through all of my articles.

Conversion of type 'X' to type 'Y' may be a mistake in TS