(T | undefined) & T has different behavior when T is known versus when T is a type variable

[TheUnlocked]

Bug Report

🔎 Search Terms

• or undefined
• and undefined
• undefined generic disjunction
• generic or undefined

🕗 Version & Regression Information

• This is the behavior in every version I tried

⏯ Playground Link

Playground link with relevant code

💻 Code

// Samples of behavior on known types
// The evaluated type is always equal to the input type
type Test1 = (1 | undefined) & 1; // 1
type Test2 = (string | undefined) & string; // string
type Test3 = ({ a: 1 } | undefined) & { a: 1 }; // { a: 1 } & { a: 1 }
type Test4 = (unknown | undefined) & unknown; // unknown
type Test5 = (never | undefined) & never; // never

// Minimal example of issue
function f<T>() {
    type Y = (T | undefined) & T; // (T | undefined & T)
}

// Minimal example of when this could cause a problem
function g1<T extends {}, A extends { z: (T | undefined) & T }>(a: A) {
    const { z } = a;

    return {
        // T must extend {} so it should be spreadable
        // ERROR: Spread types may only be created from object types. (2698)
        ...z
    };
}

// If the type of z is just T instead of (T | undefined) & T, it works fine
function g2<T extends {}, A extends { z: T }>(a: A) {
    const { z } = a;

    return {
        ...z
    };
}

🙁 Actual behavior

The type expression (T | undefined) & T evaluates to itself when T is a type variable.

🙂 Expected behavior

Either (T | undefined) & T should evaluate to T when T is a type variable since that's the behavior with known types, or (T | undefined) & T should not evaluate to T when T is a known type (and should instead evaluate to something else in both cases-- never maybe?).

[ahejlsberg]

The type (T | undefined) & T normalizes to T | T & undefined which, upon subtype reduction, further reduces to just T. However, because it is expensive, we don't always perform subtype reduction. Likewise, in cases where you manually write it out, we don't go through the extra effort of reducing. So, it is possible and expected to see types like T | T & undefined.

The real issue here is that we don't consider T | T & undefined to be a spreadable type. Given that T is spreadable and that it is perfectly valid to spread an undefined (which does nothing), it should definitely also be ok to spread a T & undefined. That's what needs to be fixed.