Exploring the utilization of an interface or class in Typescript

Imagine a common situation where users need to provide an email and password for logging in using Typescript. To make this process more organized, I want to define a strong type that represents the user's login information and send it securely to the back-end.

Should we define it like this:

export interface UserLogin {
  email: string;
  password: string;
}
//OR
export class UserLogin {
  email: string;
  password: string;
}

When should we choose one over the other?

Answer №1

Essentially, a class can be seen as a factory for objects (like a blueprint of how an object should be structured and created), while an interface serves as a tool for type-checking.

While a class contains properties and methods to initiate object creation, an interface outlines the properties and types that an object must adhere to.

In your scenario, the interface would be used to define the type for UserLogin.

Answer №2

When it comes to defining a custom type, utilizing interfaces is the way to go. In my opinion, one practical advantage of using interfaces is that they do not transpile into JavaScript, resulting in shorter generated code.

However, if you require the ability to instantiate objects with constructors or work within a framework that handles instantiation and injection, classes or abstract classes would be more appropriate options.

Answer №3

Both options are equally capable of getting the job done. However, my recommendation would be to lean towards using interfaces if you are primarily focused on type-checking, as they are specifically tailored for that purpose.

Classes and interfaces play a vital role in object-oriented programming and type-checking within TypeScript. A class serves as a blueprint for creating objects with shared configurations of properties and methods. On the other hand, an interface defines a set of related properties and methods that describe an object, without providing their implementation or initialization.

Source:

Answer №4

transfer it to the server-side

When transmitting classes through the network, additional steps are needed - if JSON is utilized as the content type, the class will be received as a plain object in your server-side code. Visit several responses related to this issue that explain how to convert JSON back into a class object in order to access its methods.

In cases where the class mentioned doesn't have any methods, this may not present an issue unless the server-side code requires runtime checks using instanceof.

To circumvent these challenges, opt for using interfaces which only include data fields to represent objects when communicating with the server-side.

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