nameof

A tiny utility for safely extracting property names from TypeScript objects — inspired by C#'s nameof operator.

💡 Examples

import nameof from "@nameof/nameof";

// basic
const obj = { name: "John", age: 30 };
const keyName = nameof(obj, "name");
console.log(`keyName: ${keyName}`);

// single key
const keyName2 = nameof<typeof obj>("age");
console.log(`keyName2: ${keyName2}`);

// variable name
const numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
const variableName = nameof({ numbers });
console.log(`variableName: ${variableName}`);

// Class Name
class Person {}
const className = nameof(Person);
console.log(`className: ${className}`);

// Function Name
function bar() {}
const functionName = nameof(bar);
console.log(`functionName: ${functionName}`);

Try Online (only type)

✨ Features

• ✅ Type-safe access to property names
• ✅ Preserves literal types
• ✅ Refactor-friendly
• ✅ Zero dependencies

📦 Installation

# With Bun
bun add @nameof/nameof

with npm yarn pnpm amd more see here

🚀 Usage

import nameof from "@nameof/nameof";

const user = {
  id: 1,
  name: "Alice",
  age: 30,
};

const propName = nameof(user, "name"); // "name"

🧠 Why?

TypeScript lacks a built-in nameof operator like C#. Developers often fall back on hardcoded strings, which:

• ❌ Aren't checked by the compiler
• ❌ Don’t update when properties are renamed
• ❌ Easily lead to bugs in refactors

This utility gives you type-safe property name extraction, with full support for TypeScript’s type system and IDE refactor tools.

🛡️ Refactor-Safe by Design

One of the key benefits of nameof is its compile-time safety during refactoring.

🔁 Rename-safe

const user = {
  id: 123,
  name: "Alice",
};

const field = nameof(user, "name"); // "name"

Now, if you rename name to fullName:

const user = {
  id: 123,
  fullName: "Alice",
};

// ❌ TypeScript error:
const field = nameof(user, "name");
// Argument of type '"name"' is not assignable to ...

✅ TypeScript catches it instantly. Your code is safe from silent bugs caused by outdated strings.

🔍 What about hardcoded strings?

const field = "name"; // ❌ No error on rename

Hardcoded strings aren’t tracked by the compiler — you lose all refactor safety.

💡 Pro Tip: Use as const

For stricter typing:

const config = {
  apiEndpoint: "/api/data",
  retry: true,
} as const;

const key = nameof(config, "apiEndpoint"); // type: "apiEndpoint"

Literal types are preserved in the result!

❌ Why Not a Macro or Compiler?

Some libraries implement nameof(foo.bar) using Babel or AST transforms. This package deliberately avoids those approaches.

🚫 No macros or compilers required

• ❌ No Babel plugins
• ❌ No SWC or TypeScript transformers
• ❌ No custom build setup

✅ Just TypeScript

• Works in any environment (Node, Bun, Vite, Webpack, etc.)
• Transparent and reliable
• Keeps your build chain simple

🔗 References

• https://github.com/dsherret/ts-nameof/issues/121

🔧 Development

This project is built with Bun — fast, modern, and TypeScript-first.

git clone https://github.com/baboon-king/nameof.git
cd nameof
bun install
bun run build

📄 License

MIT License © 2025-PRESENT BaboonKing

🌸 Thanks

This project is heavily inspired by the following awesome projects.

• nameof expression (C# reference)
• ts-nameof
• ts-keyof
• ts-simple-nameof

🙌 Contributing

Suggestions, issues, and PRs are welcome!

If you find this useful, please ⭐️ the repo and help others discover it!