[enums] How to create enum like type in TypeScript?

I'm working on a definitions file for the Google maps API for TypeScript.

And I need to define an enum like type eg. google.maps.Animation which contains two properties: BOUNCE and DROP.

How should this be done in TypeScript?

This is now part of the language. See TypeScriptLang.org > Basic Types > enum for the documentation on this. An excerpt from the documentation on how to use these enums:

enum Color {Red, Green, Blue};
var c: Color = Color.Green;

Or with manual backing numbers:

enum Color {Red = 1, Green = 2, Blue = 4};
var c: Color = Color.Green;

You can also go back to the enum name by using for example Color[2].

Here's an example of how this all goes together:

module myModule {
    export enum Color {Red, Green, Blue};

    export class MyClass {
        myColor: Color;

        constructor() {
            console.log(this.myColor);
            this.myColor = Color.Blue;
            console.log(this.myColor);
            console.log(Color[this.myColor]);
        }
    }
}

var foo = new myModule.MyClass();

This will log:

undefined  
2  
Blue

Because, at the time of writing this, the Typescript Playground will generate this code:

var myModule;
(function (myModule) {
    (function (Color) {
        Color[Color["Red"] = 0] = "Red";
        Color[Color["Green"] = 1] = "Green";
        Color[Color["Blue"] = 2] = "Blue";
    })(myModule.Color || (myModule.Color = {}));
    var Color = myModule.Color;
    ;
    var MyClass = (function () {
        function MyClass() {
            console.log(this.myColor);
            this.myColor = Color.Blue;
            console.log(this.myColor);
            console.log(Color[this.myColor]);
        }
        return MyClass;
    })();
    myModule.MyClass = MyClass;
})(myModule || (myModule = {}));
var foo = new myModule.MyClass();

As of TypeScript 0.9 (currently an alpha release) you can use the enum definition like this:

enum TShirtSize {
  Small,
  Medium,
  Large
}

var mySize = TShirtSize.Large;

By default, these enumerations will be assigned 0, 1 and 2 respectively. If you want to explicitly set these numbers, you can do so as part of the enum declaration.

Listing 6.2 Enumerations with explicit members

enum TShirtSize {
  Small = 3,
  Medium = 5,
  Large = 8
}

var mySize = TShirtSize.Large;

Both of these examples lifted directly out of TypeScript for JavaScript Programmers.

Note that this is different to the 0.8 specification. The 0.8 specification looked like this - but it was marked as experimental and likely to change, so you'll have to update any old code:

Disclaimer - this 0.8 example would be broken in newer versions of the TypeScript compiler.

enum TShirtSize {
  Small: 3,
  Medium: 5,
  Large: 8
}

var mySize = TShirtSize.Large;

Update:

As noted by @iX3, Typescript 2.4 has support for enum strings.

See:Create an enum with string values in Typescript

Original answer:

For String member values, TypeScript only allows numbers as enum member values. But there are a few solutions/hacks you can implement;

Solution 1:

copied from: https://blog.rsuter.com/how-to-implement-an-enum-with-string-values-in-typescript/

There is a simple solution: Just cast the string literal to any before assigning:

export enum Language {
    English = <any>"English",
    German = <any>"German",
    French = <any>"French",
    Italian = <any>"Italian"
}

solution 2:

copied from: https://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/content/docs/types/literal-types.html

You can use a string literal as a type. For example:

let foo: 'Hello';

Here we have created a variable called foo that will only allow the literal value 'Hello' to be assigned to it. This is demonstrated below:

let foo: 'Hello';
foo = 'Bar'; // Error: "Bar" is not assignable to type "Hello"

They are not very useful on their own but can be combined in a type union to create a powerful (and useful) abstraction e.g.:

type CardinalDirection =
    "North"
    | "East"
    | "South"
    | "West";

function move(distance: number, direction: CardinalDirection) {
    // ...
}

move(1,"North"); // Okay
move(1,"Nurth"); // Error!

Enums in typescript:

Enums are put into the typescript language to define a set of named constants. Using enums can make our life easier. The reason for this is that these constants are often easier to read than the value which the enum represents.

Creating a enum:

enum Direction {
    Up = 1,
    Down,
    Left,
    Right,
}

This example from the typescript docs explains very nicely how enums work. Notice that our first enum value (Up) is initialized with 1. All the following members of the number enum are then auto incremented from this value (i.e. Down = 2, Left = 3, Right = 4). If we didn't initialize the first value with 1 the enum would start at 0 and then auto increment (i.e. Down = 1, Left = 2, Right = 3).

Using an enum:

We can access the values of the enum in the following manner:

Direction.Up;     // first the enum name, then the dot operator followed by the enum value
Direction.Down;

Notice that this way we are much more descriptive in the way we write our code. Enums basically prevent us from using magic numbers (numbers which represent some entity because the programmer has given a meaning to them in a certain context). Magic numbers are bad because of the following reasons:

1. We need to think harder, we first need to translate the number to an entity before we can reason about our code.
2. If we review our code after a long while, or other programmers review our code, they don't necessarily know what is meant with these numbers.

Just another note that you can a id/string enum with the following:

class EnumyObjects{
    public static BOUNCE={str:"Bounce",id:1};
    public static DROP={str:"Drop",id:2};
    public static FALL={str:"Fall",id:3};


}