A filter formats the value of an expression for display to the user. They can be used in view templates, controllers or services and it is easy to define your own filter.
The underlying API is the filterProvider
.
Filters can be applied to expressions in view templates using the following syntax:
{{ expression | filter }}
E.g. the markup {{ 12 | currency }}
formats the number 12 as a currency using the currency
filter. The resulting value is $12.00
.
Filters can be applied to the result of another filter. This is called "chaining" and uses the following syntax:
{{ expression | filter1 | filter2 | ... }}
Filters may have arguments. The syntax for this is
{{ expression | filter:argument1:argument2:... }}
E.g. the markup {{ 1234 | number:2 }}
formats the number 1234 with 2 decimal points using the
number
filter. The resulting value is 1,234.00
.
You can also use filters in controllers, services, and directives. For this, inject a dependency
with the name <filterName>Filter
to your controller/service/directive. E.g. using the dependency
numberFilter
will inject the number filter. The injected argument is a function that takes the
value to format as first argument and filter parameters starting with the second argument.
The example below uses the filter called filter
.
This filter reduces arrays into sub arrays based on
conditions. The filter can be applied in the view template with markup like
{{ctrl.array | filter:'a'}}
, which would do a fulltext search for "a".
However, using a filter in a view template will reevaluate the filter on
every digest, which can be costly if the array is big.
The example below therefore calls the filter directly in the controller. By this, the controller is able to call the filter only when needed (e.g. when the data is loaded from the backend or the filter expression is changed).
<div ng-controller="FilterController as ctrl">
<div>
All entries:
<span ng-repeat="entry in ctrl.array">{{entry.name}} </span>
</div>
<div>
Entries that contain an "a":
<span ng-repeat="entry in ctrl.filteredArray">{{entry.name}} </span>
</div>
</div>
angular.module('FilterInControllerModule', []).
controller('FilterController', ['filterFilter', function(filterFilter) {
this.array = [
{name: 'Tobias'},
{name: 'Jeff'},
{name: 'Brian'},
{name: 'Igor'},
{name: 'James'},
{name: 'Brad'}
];
this.filteredArray = filterFilter(this.array, 'a');
}]);
Writing your own filter is very easy: just register a new filter factory function with
your module. Internally, this uses the filterProvider
.
This factory function should return a new filter function which takes the input value
as the first argument. Any filter arguments are passed in as additional arguments to the filter
function.
The following sample filter reverses a text string. In addition, it conditionally makes the text upper-case.
<div ng-controller="Controller">
<input ng-model="greeting" type="text"><br>
No filter: {{greeting}}<br>
Reverse: {{greeting|reverse}}<br>
Reverse + uppercase: {{greeting|reverse:true}}<br>
</div>
angular.module('myReverseModule', [])
.filter('reverse', function() {
return function(input, uppercase) {
input = input || '';
var out = "";
for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
out = input.charAt(i) + out;
}
// conditional based on optional argument
if (uppercase) {
out = out.toUpperCase();
}
return out;
};
})
.controller('Controller', ['$scope', function($scope) {
$scope.greeting = 'hello';
}]);
See the phonecat tutorial for an example.