Mastering TypeScript Generics for Reusable Components
Take your TypeScript skills to the next level. This guide explains how to use generics to create highly reusable and type-safe React components for any data structure.
If you want to write truly reusable and type-safe code in TypeScript, you need to master generics. Generics allow you to create components, functions, and classes that can work with a variety of data types while still maintaining strict type checking. Instead of writing separate components for a list of users, a list of products, and a list of posts, you can write one generic 'List' component. Let's consider a simple example. A generic List component might look like this: ```typescript interface ListItem { id: string | number; name: string; } interface ListProps<T extends ListItem> { items: T[]; renderItem: (item: T) => React.ReactNode; } function List<T extends ListItem>({ items, renderItem }: ListProps<T>) { return <ul>{items.map(item => <li key={item.id}>{renderItem(item)}</li>)}</ul>; } ``` This component can now render any array of objects as long as each object has an 'id' and a 'name'. This powerful pattern reduces code duplication and makes your codebase far more maintainable.