Cast object to interface in TypeScript

If it helps anyone, I was having an issue where I wanted to treat an object as another type with a similar interface. I attempted the following:

Didn't pass linting

const x = new Obj(a as b);

The linter was complaining that a was missing properties that existed on b. In other words, a had some properties and methods of b, but not all. To work around this, I followed VS Code's suggestion:

Passed linting and testing

const x = new Obj(a as unknown as b);

Note that if your code attempts to call one of the properties that exists on type b that is not implemented on type a, you should realize a runtime fault.

Here's another way to force a type-cast even between incompatible types and interfaces where TS compiler normally complains:

export function forceCast<T>(input: any): T {

  // ... do runtime checks here

  // @ts-ignore <-- forces TS compiler to compile this as-is
  return input;
}

Then you can use it to force cast objects to a certain type:

import { forceCast } from './forceCast';

const randomObject: any = {};
const typedObject = forceCast<IToDoDto>(randomObject);

Note that I left out the part you are supposed to do runtime checks before casting for the sake of reducing complexity. What I do in my project is compiling all my .d.ts interface files into JSON schemas and using ajv to validate in runtime.

There's no casting in javascript, so you cannot throw if "casting fails".
Typescript supports casting but that's only for compilation time, and you can do it like this:

const toDo = <IToDoDto> req.body;
// or
const toDo = req.body as IToDoDto;

You can check at runtime if the value is valid and if not throw an error, i.e.:

function isToDoDto(obj: any): obj is IToDoDto {
    return typeof obj.description === "string" && typeof obj.status === "boolean";
}

@Post()
addToDo(@Response() res, @Request() req) {
    if (!isToDoDto(req.body)) {
        throw new Error("invalid request");
    }

    const toDo = req.body as IToDoDto;
    this.toDoService.addToDo(toDo);
    return res.status(HttpStatus.CREATED).end();
}

---

Edit

As @huyz pointed out, there's no need for the type assertion because isToDoDto is a type guard, so this should be enough:

if (!isToDoDto(req.body)) {
    throw new Error("invalid request");
}

this.toDoService.addToDo(req.body);