659

I have written a filter function which will return data based on the argument you are passing. I want the same functionality in my controller. Is it possible to reuse the filter function in a controller?

This is what I've tried so far:

function myCtrl($scope,filter1)
{ 
    // i simply used the filter function name, it is not working.
}
1

15 Answers 15

1059

Inject $filter to your controller

function myCtrl($scope, $filter)
{
}

Then wherever you want to use that filter, just use it like this:

$filter('filtername');

If you want to pass arguments to that filter, do it using separate parentheses:

function myCtrl($scope, $filter)
{
    $filter('filtername')(arg1,arg2);
}

Where arg1 is the array you want to filter on and arg2 is the object used to filter.

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

12 Comments

Sorry, Sir, I still do not understand. Could you possibly make a Jsfiddle to show how to define the filter function body and how it is inserted in HTML file?
@gm2008 you can use number filter like var anyNumber = $filter('number')(12.222222, 2); to get 12.22.
+I for answering the question... which was "How to use a filter in a controller?"
An example with "currency" build in filter: $filter("currency")(price, "$", 2) So if you had a price = 200, that expression would return "$200.00".
The answer by @pkozlowski.opensource is better than this because it reduces "magic strings". One benefit - what if this was in a much more complex controller and you failed to unit test the filter being used? You wouldn't notice the error if you use $filter('filtter1') (2 t's). However, if you inject filtter1Filter Angular will complain immediately that the dependency doesn't exist.
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255

Answer provided by @Prashanth is correct, but there is even easier way of doing the same. Basically instead of injecting the $filter dependency and using awkward syntax of invoking it ($filter('filtername')(arg1,arg2);) one can inject dependency being: filter name plus the Filter suffix.

Taking example from the question one could write:

function myCtrl($scope, filter1Filter) { 
  filter1Filter(input, arg1);
}

It should be noted that you must append Filter to the filter name, no matter what naming convention you're using: foo is referenced by calling fooFilter
fooFilter is referenced by calling fooFilterFilter

9 Comments

Sure.. but I'm still to find a use case where you would like to inject 10 filters to one class... Such a class would probably violate single responsibility principle...
Just to make clear, that this is no "awkward" JS syntax … var fooFilter = $filter('foo'); fooFilter(arg1, arg2);
@OZ_ what do you mean? It works minification or not. Minification has nothing to do here, see this plunk: plnkr.co/edit/1k6nJnHO8ukBWUfgAyQw?p=preview
This is ideal for using a single filter, which is the case I ran into.
+1 I think the $filter syntax hides dependencies, thus leading to less maintainable code. Injecting filters "statically" is a better choice.
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80

Using following sample code we can filter array in angular controller by name. this is based on following description. http://docs.angularjs.org/guide/filter

this.filteredArray = filterFilter(this.array, {name:'Igor'});

JS:

 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, {name:'Igor'});
    }]);

HTML

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Example - example-example96-production</title>
  

  <script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.3.0-beta.3/angular.min.js"></script>
  <script src="script.js"></script>
  

  
</head>
<body ng-app="FilterInControllerModule">
    <div ng-controller="FilterController as ctrl">
    <div>
      All entries:
      <span ng-repeat="entry in ctrl.array">{{entry.name}} </span>
    </div>
    <div>
      Filter By Name in angular controller
      <span ng-repeat="entry in ctrl.filteredArray">{{entry.name}} </span>
    </div>
  </div>
</body>
</html>

2 Comments

filterFilter(this.array, {name:'Igor'}); is filterFilter a keyword or what it automatically filtered out the data and why ['filterFilter', function(filterFilter) { defined here ! ?
A Plnkr with more examples of this technique: plnkr.co/edit/icFurX?p=preview
48

Here's another example of using filter in an Angular controller:

$scope.ListOfPeople = [
    { PersonID: 10, FirstName: "John", LastName: "Smith", Sex: "Male" },
    { PersonID: 11, FirstName: "James", LastName: "Last", Sex: "Male" },
    { PersonID: 12, FirstName: "Mary", LastName: "Heart", Sex: "Female" },
    { PersonID: 13, FirstName: "Sandra", LastName: "Goldsmith", Sex: "Female" },
    { PersonID: 14, FirstName: "Shaun", LastName: "Sheep", Sex: "Male" },
    { PersonID: 15, FirstName: "Nicola", LastName: "Smith", Sex: "Male" }
];

$scope.ListOfWomen = $scope.ListOfPeople.filter(function (person) {
    return (person.Sex == "Female");
});

//  This will display "There are 2 women in our list."
prompt("", "There are " + $scope.ListOfWomen.length + " women in our list.");

Simple, hey ?

1 Comment

This is exactly what I needed, thanks. Though apparently this is not what the question is about. :)
41

There are three possible ways to do this.

Let's assume you have the following simple filter, which converts a string to uppercase, with a parameter for the first character only.

app.filter('uppercase', function() {
    return function(string, firstCharOnly) {
        return (!firstCharOnly)
            ? string.toUpperCase()
            : string.charAt(0).toUpperCase() + string.slice(1);
    }
});

Directly through $filter

app.controller('MyController', function($filter) {

    // HELLO
    var text = $filter('uppercase')('hello');

    // Hello
    var text = $filter('uppercase')('hello', true);

});

Note: this gives you access to all your filters.


Assign $filter to a variable

This option allows you to use the $filter like a function.

app.controller('MyController', function($filter) {

    var uppercaseFilter = $filter('uppercase');

    // HELLO
    var text = uppercaseFilter('hello');

    // Hello
    var text = uppercaseFilter('hello', true);

});

Load only a specific Filter

You can load only a specific filter by appending the filter name with Filter.

app.controller('MyController', function(uppercaseFilter) {

    // HELLO
    var text = uppercaseFilter('hello');

    // Hello
    var text = uppercaseFilter('hello', true);

});

Which one you use comes to personal preference, but I recommend using the third, because it's the most readable option.

Comments

15
function ngController($scope,$filter){
    $scope.name = "aaaa";
    $scope.age = "32";

     $scope.result = function(){
        return $filter('lowercase')($scope.name);
    };
}

The controller method 2nd argument name should be "$filter" then only the filter functionality will work with this example. In this example i have used the "lowercase" Filter.

Comments

12

I have another example, that I made for my process:

I get an Array with value-Description like this

states = [{
    status: '1',
    desc: '\u2713'
}, {
    status: '2',
    desc: '\u271B'
}]

in my Filters.js:

.filter('getState', function () {
    return function (input, states) {
        //console.log(states);
        for (var i = 0; i < states.length; i++) {
            //console.log(states[i]);
            if (states[i].status == input) {
                return states[i].desc;
            }
        }
        return '\u2718';
    };
})

Then, a test var (controller):

function myCtrl($scope, $filter) {
    // ....
    var resp = $filter('getState')('1', states);
    // ....
}

1 Comment

Will this work in angularjs 1.0.8?? coz its not working for me..says $filter is not defined even after I added that in controller
7

AngularJs lets you to use filters inside template or inside Controller, Directive etc..

in template you can use this syntax

{{ variable | MyFilter: ... : ... }}

and inside controller you can use injecting the $filter service

angular.module('MyModule').controller('MyCtrl',function($scope, $filter){
    $filter('MyFilter')(arg1, arg2);
})

If you need more with Demo example here is a link

AngularJs filter examples and demo

2 Comments

inceting is not a word. Do you mean injecting?
oops.yea I mean injecting.
6

There is another way to evaluate filters that mirrors the syntax from the views. The invocation is hairy but you could build a shortcut to it. I like that the syntax of the string is identical to what you'd have in a view. Looks like this:

function myCtrl($scope, $interpolate) { 
  $scope.$eval($interpolate( "{{ myvar * 10 | currency }} dollars." ))
}

2 Comments

That actually is very useful!
this is fantastic as it allows me to pass a string that looks just like it would in the markup.
5

It seems nobody has mentioned that you can use a function as arg2 in $filter('filtername')(arg1,arg2);

For example:

$scope.filteredItems = $filter('filter')(items, function(item){return item.Price>50;});

Comments

2

Simple date example using $filter in a controller would be:

var myDate = new Date();
$scope.dateAsString = $filter('date')(myDate, "yyyy-MM-dd"); 

As explained here - https://stackoverflow.com/a/20131782/262140

Comments

1

Use below code if we want to add multiple conditions, instead of single value in javascript angular filter:

var modifiedArray = $filter('filter')(array,function(item){return (item.ColumnName == 'Value1' || item.ColumnName == 'Value2');},true)

Comments

1

First of all inject $filter to your controller, making sure ngSanitize is loaded within your app, later within the controller usage is as follows:

$filter('linky')(text, target, attributes)

Always check out the angularjs docs

Comments

1

if you want to filter object in controller try this

var rateSelected = $filter('filter')($scope.GradeList, function (obj) {
                        if(obj.GradeId == $scope.contractor_emp.save_modal_data.GradeId)
                        return obj;
                });

This will return filtered object according to if condition

Comments

0

Reusing An Angular.js Filter - View / Controller

This Solution is covering reusing Angular Filters. Which is yet another way to filter data, and Google landed me here when I needed such; and I like to share.

Use Case

If you are already filtering, say in an ng-repeat in your view (as below), then you might have defined a filter in the controller as further follows. And then you can reuse as in the final examples.

Filter Use Example - Filtered Repeat in View

<div ng-app="someApp" ng-controller="someController">
    <h2>Duplicates</h2>
    <table class="table table-striped table-light table-bordered-light">
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>Name</th>
                <th>Gender</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            <tr ng-repeat="person in data | filter: searchDuplicate:true">
                <td>{{person.name}}</td>
                <td>{{person.gender}}</td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</div>

Angular Filter Definition Example

angular.module('someApp',[])
.controller('someController', function($scope, $filter ) {

    $scope.people = [{name: 'Bob', gender: 'male'  , hasDuplicate: true },
                     {name: 'Bob', gender: 'male'  , hasDuplicate: true },
                     {name: 'Bob', gender: 'female', hasDuplicate: false}];

    $scope.searchDuplicate = { hasDuplicate : true };
})

So, the concept here is that you are already using a filter created for your view, and then realize you would like to use it in your controller also.

Filter Function Use Within Controller Example 1

var dup = $filter('filter')($scope.people, $scope.searchDuplicate, true)

Filter Function Use Within Controller Example 2

Show a Button only if no duplicates are found, using the prior filter.

Html Button

<div ng-if="showButton()"><button class="btn btn-primary" ng-click="doSomething();"></button></div>

Show/Hide Button

$scope.doSomething = function(){ /* ... */ };
$scope.showButton = function(){ return $filter('filter')($scope.people, $scope.searchDuplicate, true).length == 0; };

Some may find this version of filtering easy, and it is an Angular.js option.

The optional comparator parameter "true" used in the view and in the $filter function call specifies you want a strict comparison. If you omit, values can be searched for over multiple columns.

https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/filter/filter

Comments

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