As most of you already know, to develop React Native apps we use JavaScript as our programming language, even though it is not the only option, one of those other programming language options that is even mentioned on the React documentation, is Typescript.
Because if you know JavaScript you already know the basics of Typescript, how is that possible? Well it is because Typescript is a superset of JavaScript, that means that you can take what you already know about JS and augment it with some new features that most probably are going to make you a more productive developer while working with React Native apps.
Typescript being a JavaScript superset permits a gradual adoption for existing projects. It's not an all or nothing approach, you and your team can start changing code snippets from JS to TS slowly.
Your preferred code editor will help you even further if you start using Typescript on your RN projects. The static type system in TypeScript helps catch problems early, like detect and report with a red squiggly line when there is a missing prop in our component that is required. Another benefit from the static type system is the intelligence, for instance, in VS code is more accurate, so while you type you're going to get better autocompletion than with JavaScript.
This is possible because TypeScript allows you to define complex type definitions in the form of interfaces. This results in strict checks which in turn reduces the amount of possible bugs you might have produced without it.
Refactoring code and code navigation goes to the next level with the use of Typescript. As the codebase of a RN app grows, it can become too difficult to read, share, or maintain. Navigating these codebases can be tedious, and refactoring code is risky. Typescript actually helps you refactor code and prevent typos, making it far easier to maintain and update without changing any of its behaviors.
Using Typescript makes your code more predictive and helps in self-documenting the whole RN app code base because you can add types to variables, functions, and properties, making your code far easier to read, which in turns helps other developers understand each other's code, most of the developers time is spent reading code that other developers previously made, with Typescript the code reading experience is improved.
If you are starting a new project which is planned to be maintained on the long term, or even a RN project that you have already started, changing from JS to TS as the programming language has more benefits than not.
Click here to learn how ArkusNexus Full-Stack Development service works.
