TypeScript array to string literal type

This answer is out of date, see answer above.

The best available workaround:

const furnitureObj = { chair: 1, table: 1, lamp: 1 };
type Furniture = keyof typeof furnitureObj;
const furniture = Object.keys(furnitureObj) as Furniture[];

Ideally we could do this:

const furniture = ['chair', 'table', 'lamp'];
type Furniture = typeof furniture[number];

Unfortunately, today furniture is inferred as string[], which means Furniture is now also a string.

We can enforce the typing as a literal with a manual annotation, but it brings back the duplication:

const furniture = ["chair", "table", "lamp"] as ["chair", "table", "lamp"];
type Furniture = typeof furniture[number];

TypeScript issue #10195 tracks the ability to hint to TypeScript that the list should be inferred as a static tuple and not string[], so maybe in the future this will be possible.

TypeScript 3.4+

TypeScript version 3.4 has introduced so-called **const contexts**, which is a way to declare a tuple type as immutable and get the narrow literal type directly (without the need to call a function like shown above).

With this new syntax, we get this nice concise solution:

const furniture = ['chair', 'table', 'lamp'] as const;
type Furniture = typeof furniture[number];

More about the new const contexts is found in this PR as well as in the release notes.

TypeScript 3.0+

With the use of generic rest parameters, there is a way to correctly infer string[] as a literal tuple type and then get the union type of the literals.

It goes like this:

const tuple = <T extends string[]>(...args: T) => args;
const furniture = tuple('chair', 'table', 'lamp');
type Furniture = typeof furniture[number];

More about generic rest parameters

easiest in typescript 3.4: (note TypeScript 3.4 added const assertions)

const furniture = ["chair", "table", "lamp"] as const;
type Furniture = typeof furniture[number]; // "chair" | "table" | "lamp"

also see https://stackoverflow.com/a/55505556/4481226

or if you have these as keys in an object, you can also convert it to a union:

const furniture = {chair:{}, table:{}, lamp:{}} as const;
type Furniture = keyof typeof furniture; // "chair" | "table" | "lamp"