typescript - What is the difference between types String and string?

Question

Does anyone know the difference between String and string in TypeScript? Am I correct in assuming that they ought to be the same?

var a: String = "test";
var b: string = "another test";
a = b;
b = a; // this gives a compiler error!

Current version of the compiler says:

Type 'String' is not assignable to type 'string'.
  'string' is a primitive, but 'String' is a wrapper object.
     Prefer using 'string' when possible.

Is that a bug?

Answer 1

Here is an example that shows the differences, which will help with the explanation.

var s1 = new String("Avoid newing things where possible");
var s2 = "A string, in TypeScript of type 'string'";
var s3: string;

String is the JavaScript String type, which you could use to create new strings. Nobody does this as in JavaScript the literals are considered better, so s2 in the example above creates a new string without the use of the new keyword and without explicitly using the String object.

string is the TypeScript string type, which you can use to type variables, parameters and return values.

Additional notes...

Currently (Feb 2013) Both s1 and s2 are valid JavaScript. s3 is valid TypeScript.

Use of String. You probably never need to use it, string literals are universally accepted as being the correct way to initialise a string. In JavaScript, it is also considered better to use object literals and array literals too:

var arr = []; // not var arr = new Array();
var obj = {}; // not var obj = new Object();

If you really had a penchant for the string, you could use it in TypeScript in one of two ways...

var str: String = new String("Hello world"); // Uses the JavaScript String object
var str: string = String("Hello World"); // Uses the TypeScript string type