Is there a way to specify type aliases for variadic arg functions

Is there any way to achieve proper inference of variadic arguments using aliases?

a should be fun(a: table, b: string, c: integer): boolean but instead it's fun(...: table): boolean

I've also tried but it didn't work

--- @alias Predicate1<A> fun(a: A): boolean
--- @alias Predicate2<A, B> fun(a: A, b: B): boolean
--- @alias Predicate3<A, B, C> fun(a: A, b: B, c: C): boolean
--- @alias Predicate4<A, B, C, D> fun(a: A, b: B, c: C, d: D): boolean

--- @alias Predicate<A, B, C, D>
--- | Predicate1<A>
--- | Predicate2<A, B>
--- | Predicate3<A, B, C>
--- | Predicate4<A, B, C, D>

AFAIK, there can only be one type for variadic arg
i.e. if you write ...: A => it expects all variadic args to be of type A

For your specific use case which you at most have 4 args, I tested around and you can just write it as:

--- @alias Predicate<A, B, C, D> fun(a: A, b: B, c: C, d: D): boolean

---@type Predicate<table, string, integer>
local function test1(a, b, c)
    --> a: table, b: string, c: integer
    return true
end

---@type Predicate<integer>
local function test2(a)
    --> a: integer
    return false
end

Although in this case when you hover over test2, it will be shown as:

local test2: Predicate<integer>
function (a: integer, b: <B>, c: <C>, d: <D>)
  -> boolean

My use case rather involved any number of arguments

Then it's just not supported currently in LuaLS I believe. 😕
It assumes the ... to be homogeneous (same type), which you can only specific 1 type for it.

If you still would like to use the @alias method, you can define as many arguments as you can.
The annotation for table.unpack is also somewhat done in this way:

lua-language-server/meta/template/table.lua

Lines 66 to 85 in 24b9faa

    
           ---@version >5.2, JIT 
        
           ---#DES 'table.unpack' 
        
           ---@generic T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10 
        
           ---@param list { 
        
           --- [1]?: T1, 
        
           --- [2]?: T2, 
        
           --- [3]?: T3, 
        
           --- [4]?: T4, 
        
           --- [5]?: T5, 
        
           --- [6]?: T6, 
        
           --- [7]?: T7, 
        
           --- [8]?: T8, 
        
           --- [9]?: T9, 
        
           --- [10]?: T10, 
        
           ---} 
        
           ---@param i?   integer 
        
           ---@param j?   integer 
        
           ---@return T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10 
        
           ---@nodiscard 
        
           function table.unpack(list, i, j) end

instead of writing @return ...T (which means all are of the same generic type T
it uses @return T1, T2, xxx to support up to 10 different inferred return value type

Looks like a hack..

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Is there a way to specify type aliases for variadic arg functions #3252

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	---@version >5.2, JIT
	---#DES 'table.unpack'
	---@generic T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
	---@param list {
	--- [1]?: T1,
	--- [2]?: T2,
	--- [3]?: T3,
	--- [4]?: T4,
	--- [5]?: T5,
	--- [6]?: T6,
	--- [7]?: T7,
	--- [8]?: T8,
	--- [9]?: T9,
	--- [10]?: T10,
	---}
	---@param i? integer
	---@param j? integer
	---@return T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10
	---@nodiscard
	function table.unpack(list, i, j) end

Is there a way to specify type aliases for variadic arg functions #3252

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tomlau10 commented on Aug 18, 2025

vaderkos commented on Aug 25, 2025

tomlau10 commented on Aug 26, 2025

vaderkos commented on Aug 30, 2025

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