Type `{*}` is replaced with `{any}`

[shadowspawn]

I am using {*} for the "any" type in my JSDoc which I think is the standard usage. This is used in examples on these pages:

• https://jsdoc.app/tags-type
• https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/jsdoc-supported-types.html

prettier-plugin-jsdoc is replacing {*} with {any} which I have not seen documented or used in examples for JSDoc, although presumably reasonable for TSDoc since a TypeScript type.

/**
- * @param {*} previous
+ * @param {any} previous
 */

[shadowspawn]

Could perhaps conditional the {any} on the tsdoc option?

[shadowspawn]

For interest, I was wondering where the {*} came from.

https://jsdoc.app/tags-type says:

A type expression can include the JSDoc namepath to a symbol (for example, myNamespace.MyClass); a built-in JavaScript type (for example, string); or a combination of these. You can use any Google Closure Compiler type expression, as well as several other formats that are specific to JSDoc.

https://github.com/google/closure-compiler/wiki/Types-in-the-Closure-Type-System

Syntax Name	Syntax	Description
The ALL type	*	Indicates that the variable can take on any type. However, it is an error to attempt to do operations on a value of this type or access any properties on it. You also cannot assign it to any other type variable without a cast.
The ANY type	?	Indicates that the variable can take on any type, and the compiler should not type-check any uses of it.

[sxxov]

Interesting, that means {*} would be anagolous to {unknown} instead of {any}.

[fardad-dev]

what should we do?

[shadowspawn]

I wanted to retain {*} in my plain javascript files and not switch to a Typescript type. But no one has upvoted this or commented separately about the behaviour, so presumably most people are happy. Please feel free to close this issue!

As for any vs unknown, I suspect the distinction in Closure is not widely known. The Typescript JSDoc documentation treats them both as any. Changing {*} to {unknown} would probably be surprising to many people.

Other types from Closure also work:

/**
 * @type {*} - can be 'any' type
 */
var star;
/**
 * @type {?} - unknown type (same as 'any')
 */
var question;