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chatgpt-infer-ts-types

Use ChatGPT to infer Typescript types from Javascript code

People converting from Javascript to Typescript end up with a lot of any types, many of them implicit. They don't get much value from switching to Typescript. Even after they add annotation for primitive types like string and number[], they need to create interfaces to capture their complex data. This is a difficult step for people who have never created a type before — their knowledge of types is implicit. Fortunately, ChatGPT is really good at working with Typescript types, and inferring them from various kinds of input.

Build

$ export OPENAI_API_KEY=(key goes here)
$ npm ci
$ npm test

Prototype

$ node dist/infer.js ~/src/example/test.js 0 100

The numeric parameters specify the start and end character locations inside the file. If they're left off the whole file is used.

This prompts ChatGPT like this:

I wrote the following Javascript code.
Can you suggest Typescript types for it? I'd like standalone interfaces if possible.

```
function parseLogsFromCsv(text) {
    const lines = text.split('\n');
    const logs = [];
    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
        const line = lines[i];
        const [timestamp, level, message] = line.split(',');
        logs.push({ timestamp, level, message });
    }
    return logs;
}
```

The output is the new code should replace the old code. It contains the newly-defined interfaces as well as the existing code with type annotations added:

interface Log {
    timestamp: string;
    level: string;
    message: string;
}
function parseLogsFromCsv(text: string): Log[] {
    const lines: string[] = text.split('\n');
    const logs: Log[] = [];
    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
        const line: string = lines[i];
        const [timestamp, level, message]: string[] = line.split(',');
        logs.push({ timestamp, level, message });
    }
    return logs;
}

Future Work

For Hackathon:

  • Get chatGPT to not modify or improve existing code.
  • Parse out only code, or get chatGPT to return only code.
  • This probably works for Python (and Ruby, PHP, Racket) too -- try it out. (I'll need to change the wording of the prompt slightly)
  • Parse out new code from existing code. (probably not needed)

For later: I intend to integrate the feature into VSCode's Copilot.

  • This will make it available as a single command in VSCode which uses the current selection to specify which code to annotate.
  • It will also let VSCode suggest the command when a file is renamed from .js to .ts extensions.
  • And it will let people have a conversation with ChatGPT to refine the generated code.

For Hackathon Submission

Convert Javascript to Typescript

Description

Convert Javascript code to Typescript:

  • add types to existing code
  • define types for complex data structures

The prototype is simple: query ChatGPT and post-process the result slightly.

Prospects

  • Increase usage of Typescript and Visual Studio.
  • Help people get ongoing value out of switching to Typescript.
  • Help people learn--by example--how to come up with types for their code.

Demo