Rename and fine all references of Typescript's string literal values

[dbaeumer]

From @zivni on March 20, 2016 8:40

Type script string literals allow to have a code such as

//interfaces.d.ts
type Options = "option 1 " | "option 2" 

//file.ts
let myOption: Options = "option 1" // "option 3" will give us an error, right in the IDE.

It would be nice to be able to rename and find all references of a specific value. e.g. find/rename all occurrences of "option 1". Currently we can only find the references of the type itself.

Copied from original issue: microsoft/vscode#4469

[mhegazy]

so should we rename all literal types "option 1" or just the ones from this declaration?

for example:

type Options = "option 1" | "option 2"
let myOption: Options = "option 1" // rename here,

function foo(a: "option 1") { } // should this be renamed as well?

[zivni]

This does not work as accepted. I don't know if this problem is with Typescript or with VSCode.

Just open a new test.ts file with this content in vscode:

type A= "aaa" | "article" 
type B = "aaa" | "ccc"

var a:A="aaa"
var b:B="aaa"

press F2 to rename the "aaa" of the A type. the "aaa" of the B type is also renamed.
It goes even further, rename the "article" of the A type. You'll notice that it changed the typing in lib.es6.d.ts togetElementsByTagName(tagname: "renamed_article"): NodeListOf<HTMLElement>;

And also the find all references does not work

Tried it on vscode 1.7.1 on windows.

[mhegazy]

there is really no difference between "aaa" in type A and in type B. they are really the same type. the lib.d.ts change should be disabled, this is tracked by #7458

[zivni]

I will have to disagree.
It like saying that 2 properties with the same name in two different interfaces are the same.

Lets take a more concrete example: As typescript doesn't yet have a nameof operator, a common practice, when you need to pass a member name to a function, is to list members using a string literal types. E.g.:

type UserMembers = "id" | "name | ...
interface User{
   id: string
   name: string
   //...other properties
}

type OrderMembers = "id" | "name | ...
interface Order{
   id: string
   name: string
   //...other properties
}

// and then:
const orderByFields:UserMemebers[] = ["name","id"]
let orderedUsers=_.orderBy(users,orderByFields)

No lets say we decide to rename the members to more meaningful names, like userId and orderId, or userName and orderName. The interfaces will be renamed as accepted, but the string literal types will not.

Another example could be tat each have a status member with there own string literal types. and you need to change just a status name og just one of them

Also the problem described in #7458 is a different problem. there the rename is of a specific member, and what was wanted is to rename a specific instance of "html" code. Here the problem with article is that it renames something that is entirely unconnected to the renamed object.