Problems with the table annotation..

[frostedpenguin]

How are you using the lua-language-server?

NeoVim

Which OS are you using?

Linux

What is the issue affecting?

Annotations, Type Checking

Expected Behaviour

I am trying to use the table annotation with a custom string type to better define the key values of my dictionary..

This is what I have tried

--- @type table<"root", string>
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}
print(directories.root) -- 👈 this should not throw any warnings

Actual Behaviour

--- @type table<"root", string>
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}
print(directories.root) -- 👈 this throws Undefined field `root` warning

This also does not work

--- @alias themeDirectories "root"
--- @type table<themeDirctories, string>
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}
print(directories.root) -- 👈 this throws Undefined field `root` warning

Reproduction steps

run the code snippets ⌨️

Additional Notes

No response

Log File

No response

[firas-assaad]

Can't you use --- @type { root: string }?

[frostedpenguin]

This notation works fine although there are some inconveniences that come with it.

• If the table becomes really big it's hard to break it up and you are forced to use a single line for the whole type.
  Which is a bit hard to maintain and looks weird.

• with the table annotation you can effectively reuse aliases which makes code reusability easier.

[carsakiller]

Hello! 👋

Have you tried documenting with @class?

It would work like this:

---@class directory
---@field root string

---@type directory
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}
print(directories.root)

Is there anything I can improve with the documentation that was unclear?

[carsakiller]

@frostedpenguin has your issue been resolved?

[frostedpenguin]

Yes I think it makes sense.. maybe there should be a note in the docs that the table annotation can only have primary types as its keys..

[sumneko]

Should be fixed now.

[carsakiller]

Yes, it appears that, at least in v3.6.2, the following works:

--- @type table<"root", string>
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}

print(directories["root"])

However, the following is also permitted, should you not want to use ---@class:

--- @type {root: string}
local directories = {
	root = "root",
}

print(directories.root)

There are often many ways to document things, and you can pick your favourite for your use case 🙂.