Why generic type parameters are called »T« and why you should not use these short names

You may have seen TypeScript type definitions like type Maybe<T> = T | void. Those are »generics«, i.e. types that abstract from the specific type and allow to build (type-safe) container types that can hold any type/object. In this example, any other type can be passed to Maybe (e.g. Maybe<User> or Maybe<number>).

The question is: what does the T stand for in Maybe<T>?

<T> is an abbreviation for <Type> and there are several other quite usual abbreviations in use across the TypeScript landscape (and other programming languages which support generics).

• T is meant to be a generic Type
• E is meant to be an Element (e.g. Array<E> as a list of elements)
• K is Key (in a Map<K, V>)
• V is Value (as a return value or mapped value in Map<K, V>)
• P is Property (or Props in the React world)

If you know that, reading these generic types is easy. What most developers don’t know and consider is that you don’t have to use these abbreviations. You can also simply use proper descriptive type names for generic type parameters.

type Maybe<Type> = Type | void works exactly the same as type Maybe<T> = T | void.

Thus, I highly recommend to not use cryptic abbreviations anymore but such descriptive type names instead. It’s a lot more readable.