FlowType errors using Object.entries - flowtype

Question

So, I have the following code, but flow errors keep popping up. I've tried to cast the Object.entries, but just won't work - others things to. Any insight?
type Fields = {
name: string,
func: (*) => boolean
};
type S = {
key1: Fields,
bill: Fields
}
var a: S = {
key1: {name: 'mary', func: (str) => str === 'mary'},
bill: {name: 'bill', func: (str) => str === 'bill'}
}
var c = Object
.entries(a)
.map(([key, obj]) => obj.func(key) ? obj : false)
.filter(f => f)
.reduce((acc, c) => {
return 'something here'
}, {});
I've left some things off, but the slow is the same. Flow is reading that entries as a return Tuple Type. I've tried all sorts of things, but instead of mudding things up, I left it untouched.
I can't seem to annotate the destructured items here ([key, obj]), get tuple errors...
Any assistance on getting that code assigned to var c, to work with annotations etc..?
The errors I get:
Cannot call method on mixed type (from obj.func)
Cannot assign value in Tuple etc..

Answer 1

The error is accurate. Object.entries has the type
entries(object: any): Array<[string, mixed]>;
It has no way to know what the type of the second item in the tuple will be. That means your code
.map(([key, obj]) => obj.func(key) ? obj : false)
would need to do
.map(([key, obj]) => {
if (typeof obj.func !== 'function') throw new Error();
return obj.func(key) ? obj : false;
})
so that flow knows that it is guaranteed to be a function.
Alternatively, you could change your data structure to use a type where the second item in the tuple has a guaranteed type, like Map, e.g.
type Fields = {
name: string,
func: (string) => boolean
};
type S = Map<string, Fields>;
var a: S = new Map([
['key1', {name: 'mary', func: (str) => str === 'mary'}],
['bill', {name: 'bill', func: (str) => str === 'bill'}],
]);
var c = Array.from(a, ([key, obj]) => obj.func(key) ? obj : false)
.filter(f => f)
.reduce((acc, c) => {
return 'something here'
}, {});

Answer 2

In my case, I had:
let objectsByName : { [string] : MyObjectType } = {}; //simple map
...
objectsByName[object.name] = object; //call repeatedly to populate map.
...
let results : any[] = []; //next we will populate this
Trying to operate on it like this failed for Flow (though this is executable JavaScript):
for (let [name : string, object : MyObjectType] of Object.entries(objectsByName))
{
let result = doSomethingWith(object); //<- error on arg
results.push(result);
}
This succeeded for Flow:
for (let name : string in objectsByName)
{
let object = objectsByName[name];
let result = doSomethingWith(object); //<- error on arg
results.push(result);
}
It is annoying having to change code structure to suit a supposedly non-intrusive system like Flow comment types, which I chose in the hopes of making my code completely oblivious to Flow's presence. In this case I have to make an exception and structure my code as Flow wants it.

Answer 3

Replacing Object.entries with Object.keys + lookup fixes flow errors for me assuming the input object is properly typed.
i.e. replace Object.entries(a) with Object.keys(a).map(key => [key, a[key]])
This works with flow:
type Fields = {
name: string,
func: (*) => boolean
};
type S = {
key1: Fields,
bill: Fields
}
var a: S = {
key1: {name: 'mary', func: (str) => str === 'mary'},
bill: {name: 'bill', func: (str) => str === 'bill'}
}
var c = Object
.keys(a)
.map(key => a[key].func(key) ? obj : false)
.filter(f => f)
.reduce((acc, c) => {
return 'something here'
}, {});