Declare and initialize a Dictionary in Typescript

Given the following code

interface IPerson {
   firstName: string;
   lastName: string;
}

var persons: { [id: string]: IPerson; } = {
   "p1": { firstName: "F1", lastName: "L1" },
   "p2": { firstName: "F2" }
};

Why isn't the initialization rejected? After all, the second object does not have the "lastName" property.

Solution 1:

Edit: This has since been fixed in the latest TS versions. Quoting @Simon_Weaver's comment on the OP's post:

Note: this has since been fixed (not sure which exact TS version). I get these errors in VS, as you would expect: Index signatures are incompatible. Type '{ firstName: string; }' is not assignable to type 'IPerson'. Property 'lastName' is missing in type '{ firstName: string; }'.

You can make use of the typed dictionary by splitting your example up in declaration and initialization, like:

var persons: { [id: string] : IPerson; } = {};
persons["p1"] = { firstName: "F1", lastName: "L1" };
persons["p2"] = { firstName: "F2" }; // will result in an error

Solution 2:

For using dictionary object in typescript you can use interface as below:

interface Dictionary<T> {
    [Key: string]: T;
}

and, use this for your class property type.

export class SearchParameters {
    SearchFor: Dictionary<string> = {};
}

to use and initialize this class,

getUsers(): Observable<any> {
        var searchParams = new SearchParameters();
        searchParams.SearchFor['userId'] = '1';
        searchParams.SearchFor['userName'] = 'xyz';

        return this.http.post(searchParams, 'users/search')
            .map(res => {
                return res;
            })
            .catch(this.handleError.bind(this));
    }