# Always Use Inline Functions With Assign

The [`assign` action](https://xstate.js.org/docs/guides/context.html#assign-action) allows you to update the context of the state machine. There are a couple ways to use `assign`, but you should prefer the inline function style.

Technically `assign` can be passed an object literal like so to set a static value:

```javascript
{
  actions: {
    resetCount: assign({
      count: 0
    })
  }
}
```

However, this causes confusion for the TypeScript compiler and can create surprising and unrelated type errors in the parts the code that use the machine.

To keep the compiler happy, you should instead use inline functions. Either like this:

```javascript
{
  actions: {
    resetCount: assign((_context) => {
      return {
        count: 0
      }
    })
  }
}
```

or like this:

```javascript
{
  actions: {
    resetCount: assign({
      count: (_context) => 0
    })
  }
}
```
