Making Sense of 'No Shadowed Variable' tslint Warning

The linter complains because you are redefining the same variable multiple times. Thus replacing the ones in the closure containing it.

Instead of redeclaring it just use it:

private getNextStageStep(currentDisciplineSelected) {
    let nextStageStep = '';
        if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 1') {
             nextStageStep = 'step 2';
        } else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 2') {
             nextStageStep = 'step 3';
        } else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 3') {
             nextStageStep = 'step 4';
        } else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 4') {
             nextStageStep = 'step 5';
        } else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 5') {
             nextStageStep = 'step 6';
    }
    return nextStageStep;
}

This has to do with defining the same variable in different scopes. You are defining nextStageStep within the function scope & also within each if block. One option is to get rid of the variable declarations in the if blocks

if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 1') {
   nextStageStep = 'step 2';
} else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 2') {
   nextStageStep = 'step 3';
} else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 3') {
   nextStageStep = 'step 4';
} else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 4') {
   nextStageStep = 'step 5';
} else if (this.stageForDiscipline(this.currentDisciplineSelected) === 'step 5') {
   nextStageStep = 'step 6';
}

Here is a good resource on shadowed variables http://eslint.org/docs/rules/no-shadow


In general,
When a variable in a local scope and a variable in the containing scope have the same name, shadowing occurs. Shadowing makes it impossible to access the variable in the containing scope and obscures to what value an identifier actually refers to.

const a = 'no shadow';
function print() {
    console.log(a);
}
print(); // logs 'no shadow'.

const a = 'no shadow';
function print() {
    const a = 'shadow'; // TSLint will complain here.
    console.log(a);
}
print(); // logs 'shadow'.

Refer to this article for code samples explaining this.