What does "type checking" mean in programming?
type checking is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
The process of verifying that values in a program are used consistently with their declared types. Static type checking happens before runtime (TypeScript, mypy, rustc); dynamic type checking happens at runtime (Python, JavaScript). Type checkers catch entire classes of bugs — null reference errors, wrong argument types — without running the code.
Example
"The CI pipeline runs tsc --noEmit for type checking. The build fails if there are any type errors."
Related terms
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