Streamline Your Development Workflow with TypeScript, ESLint, and Prettier

The Power of TypeScript

TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that provides static type checking at compile time. This feature enables auto-completion in your editor and helps maintain large codebases.

Compiling TypeScript Code

To compile TypeScript code, you need to install the typescript dependency using your favorite package manager. Once installed, create an index.ts file in the src directory and add your TypeScript code.

npm install typescript

You can then compile the code using the tsc command.

npx tsc src/index.ts

Configuring the TypeScript Compiler

By default, the compiler creates JavaScript files side-by-side with the TypeScript source file. To change this behavior, you can create a tsconfig.json file at the root directory of your project and specify your compiler settings.

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "outDir": "build",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "noImplicitAny": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true
  }
}

The Importance of Linting

Code linting is the automated analysis of source code to find and report programmatic and stylistic errors. ESLint is one of the most popular tools for linting, and it helps catch errors by performing syntax checks, checking code quality, and ensuring consistency in formatting style.

Setting up ESLint

To set up ESLint, you need to install the eslint, @typescript-eslint/parser, and @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin dependencies.

npm install eslint @typescript-eslint/parser @typescript-eslint/eslint-plugin

You can then create an eslint.config.mjs file and specify your linting rules.

export const config = {
  root: true,
  env: {
    node: true,
  },
  extends: ['plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended'],
  parser: '@typescript-eslint/parser',
  parserOptions: {
    ecmaVersion: 2020,
    sourceType: 'odule',
    project: './tsconfig.json',
  },
  plugins: ['@typescript-eslint'],
  rules: {
    // Your custom rules here
  },
};

Integrating Prettier

Prettier is a code formatter that helps maintain a consistent coding style. To integrate Prettier with ESLint, you need to install the prettier dependency and create a .prettierrc.json file to specify your format options.

npm install prettier

{
  "trailingComma": "all",
  "tabWidth": 4,
  "semi": true,
  "singleQuote": true
}

Avoiding Conflicts between ESLint and Prettier

To avoid conflicts between ESLint and Prettier, you can use the eslint-config-prettier plugin to disable all ESLint rules that are irrelevant to code formatting.

npm install eslint-config-prettier

export const config = {
  //...
  extends: ['plugin:@typescript-eslint/recommended', 'prettier'],
  //...
};

Using TypeScript, ESLint, and Prettier together can boost your confidence in your code and help prevent bugs. By automating the process of linting, formatting, and type checking, you can save time and ensure a smooth development experience.