'Property does not exist on type 'never'

This is similar to #40796374 but that is around types, while I am using interfaces.

Given the code below:

interface Foo {
  name: string;
}

function go() {
  let instance: Foo | null = null;
  let mutator = () => {
    instance = {
      name: 'string'
    };  
  };
    
  mutator();
    
  if (instance == null) {
   console.log('Instance is null or undefined');
  } else {
   console.log(instance.name);
  }
}

I have an error saying 'Property 'name' does not exist on type 'never'.

I don't understand how instance could ever be a 'never'. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Because you are assigning instance to null. The compiler infers that it can never be anything other than null. So it assumes that the else block should never be executed so instance is typed as never in the else block.

Now if you don't declare it as the literal value null, and get it by any other means (ex: let instance: Foo | null = getFoo();), you will see that instance will be null inside the if block and Foo inside the else block.

Never type documentation: https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/basic-types.html#never

Edit:

The issue in the updated example is actually an open issue with the compiler.
See:

https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/11498
https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/12176

Stack Overflow Q#44147937, score: 148