TypeScript Importing external libraries
Syntax
import {component} from 'libName'; // Will import the class "component"import {component as c} from 'libName'; // Will import the class "component" into a "c" objectimport component from 'libname'; // Will import the default export from libNameimport * as lib from 'libName'; // Will import everything from libName into a "lib" objectimport lib = require('libName'); // Will import everything from libName into a "lib" objectconst lib: any = require('libName'); // Will import everything from libName into a "lib" objectimport 'libName'; // Will import libName module for its side effects only
Remarks
It might seem that the syntax
import * as lib from 'libName';
and
import lib = require('libName');
are the same thing, but they are not!
Let us consider that we want to import a class Person exported with TypeScript-specific export = syntax :
class Person {
...
}
export = Person;
In this case it is not possible to import it with es6 syntax (we would get an error at compile time), TypeScript-specific import = syntax must be used.
import * as Person from 'Person'; //compile error
import Person = require('Person'); //OK
The converse is true: classic modules can be imported with the second syntax, so, in a way, the last syntax is more powerful since it is able to import all exports.
For more information see the official documentation.
