How To Use the Built-In InstanceType Type in TypeScript

Sailing the instances of TypeScript classes with mapaches 🦝

You see, these glasses are an instance of the Glasses class. Woof, woof. Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

TypeScript, ahoy! 🏴‍☠️ The sea spray, the mapache’s treasure trove, the lo-fi radio! 🦜Our ship is full to the brim of nifty tools to make our developer lives more type-safe and predictable. Let’s open our treasure chest, and what will we find? Today, it’s an OOP jewel: the built-in InstanceType type.

What is InstanceType in TypeScript?

First off, let’s shed some light on what InstanceType is. This built-in type allows you to obtain an instance type of a class or constructor function.

In other words, it gives you a way to obtain the type of an object instance without explicitly declaring it.

Think of a mapache 🦝 examining an object. It’s less about the object’s origin and more about the shape and features of the object itself.

That’s the best mapache metaphor I could come up with. I recently wrote on TypeScript / JavaScript classes and constructor functions if you want to read the companion piece to this article before moving on. No obligation!

Getting the InstanceType of Mapache Class