Typescript types for a pipe() function

Consider the following TypeScript code:

type operator<T> = (input:T) => T

const pipe = <T>(...operators:operator<T>[]) => (input:T):T => operators.reduce((output, f) => f(output), input)

const add2:operator<number> = x => x+2

const times3:operator<number> = x => x*3

console.log(pipe(add2, times3)(1))    //output 9

The pipe function simply pipes the input of one operator into the result of the next operator.

Now consider this new definition of the operator type:

type operator<T, U> = (input:T) => U

How should the pipe function be rewritten in order for the IDE to let me know if I am using the types correctly?

E.g.: consider these two operators:

const times3:operator<number, number> = x => x*3

const toStr:operator<number, string> = x => `${x}`

I would like this to work properly:

pipe(times3, toStr)(1)

And here I would like the IDE to warn me that the types are wrong:

pipe(toStr, times3)(1)

I can’t figure this out, thank in advance.

Answer

Here is how RxJS does it:

pipe(): Observable<T>;
pipe<A>(op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>): Observable<A>;
pipe<A, B>(op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>, op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>): Observable<B>;
pipe<A, B, C>(op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>, op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>, op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>): Observable<C>;
pipe<A, B, C, D>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>
): Observable<D>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>
): Observable<E>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E, F>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>,
    op6: OperatorFunction<E, F>
): Observable<F>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E, F, G>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>,
    op6: OperatorFunction<E, F>,
    op7: OperatorFunction<F, G>
): Observable<G>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>,
    op6: OperatorFunction<E, F>,
    op7: OperatorFunction<F, G>,
    op8: OperatorFunction<G, H>
): Observable<H>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>,
    op6: OperatorFunction<E, F>,
    op7: OperatorFunction<F, G>,
    op8: OperatorFunction<G, H>,
    op9: OperatorFunction<H, I>
): Observable<I>;
pipe<A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I>(
    op1: OperatorFunction<T, A>,
    op2: OperatorFunction<A, B>,
    op3: OperatorFunction<B, C>,
    op4: OperatorFunction<C, D>,
    op5: OperatorFunction<D, E>,
    op6: OperatorFunction<E, F>,
    op7: OperatorFunction<F, G>,
    op8: OperatorFunction<G, H>,
    op9: OperatorFunction<H, I>,
    ...operations: OperatorFunction<any, any>[]
): Observable<unknown>;

It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done.