Typescript - 'request.userData' is possibly 'undefined'.

[matrs]

When defining request.userData, I see the following error:

'request.userData' is possibly 'undefined'.

The only way I found to fix it, was using (request.userData as any):

  await enqueueLinks({
    selector: prodGridSel,
    label: "products",
    transformRequestFunction: (request) => {
      (request.userData as any).category = cat as string;
      return request;
    },
  });

Is there a better way to avoid this typing error?

[B4nan]

Yes, just add !:

  request.userData!.category = cat;

https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/2/everyday-types.html#non-null-assertion-operator-postfix-

[matrs]

Thank you. I don't have much experience with Typescript, but it seems that besides being very helpful, one has to battle against its types pretty frequently, either for the limitations of the language and/or the implementation of the libraries.
Also, probably this is well known, but here using if (request.userData !== undefined) doesn't do anything.
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