Tutorials References Exercises Videos Menu
Free Website Get Certified Pro

AngularJS Controllers


AngularJS controllers control the data of AngularJS applications.

AngularJS controllers are regular JavaScript Objects.


AngularJS Controllers

AngularJS applications are controlled by controllers.

The ng-controller directive defines the application controller.

A controller is a JavaScript Object, created by a standard JavaScript object constructor.

AngularJS Example

<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="myCtrl">

First Name: <input type="text" ng-model="firstName"><br>
Last Name: <input type="text" ng-model="lastName"><br>
<br>
Full Name: {{firstName + " " + lastName}}

</div>

<script>
var app = angular.module('myApp', []);
app.controller('myCtrl', function($scope) {
  $scope.firstName = "John";
  $scope.lastName = "Doe";
});
</script>
Try it Yourself »

Application explained:

The AngularJS application is defined by  ng-app="myApp". The application runs inside the <div>.

The ng-controller="myCtrl" attribute is an AngularJS directive. It defines a controller.

The myCtrl function is a JavaScript function.

AngularJS will invoke the controller with a $scope object.

In AngularJS, $scope is the application object (the owner of application variables and functions).

The controller creates two properties (variables) in the scope (firstName and lastName).

The ng-model directives bind the input fields to the controller properties (firstName and lastName).



Controller Methods

The example above demonstrated a controller object with two properties: lastName and firstName.

A controller can also have methods (variables as functions):

AngularJS Example

<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="personCtrl">

First Name: <input type="text" ng-model="firstName"><br>
Last Name: <input type="text" ng-model="lastName"><br>
<br>
Full Name: {{fullName()}}

</div>

<script>
var app = angular.module('myApp', []);
app.controller('personCtrl', function($scope) {
  $scope.firstName = "John";
  $scope.lastName = "Doe";
  $scope.fullName = function() {
    return $scope.firstName + " " + $scope.lastName;
  };
});
</script>
Try it Yourself »

Controllers In External Files

In larger applications, it is common to store controllers in external files.

Just copy the code between the <script> tags into an external file named personController.js:

AngularJS Example

<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="personCtrl">

First Name: <input type="text" ng-model="firstName"><br>
Last Name: <input type="text" ng-model="lastName"><br>
<br>
Full Name: {{fullName()}}

</div>

<script src="personController.js"></script>
Try it Yourself »

Another Example

For the next example we will create a new controller file:

angular.module('myApp', []).controller('namesCtrl', function($scope) {
  $scope.names = [
    {name:'Jani',country:'Norway'},
    {name:'Hege',country:'Sweden'},
    {name:'Kai',country:'Denmark'}
  ];
});

Save the file as namesController.js:

And then use the controller file in an application:

AngularJS Example

<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="namesCtrl">

<ul>
  <li ng-repeat="x in names">
    {{ x.name + ', ' + x.country }}
  </li>
</ul>

</div>

<script src="namesController.js"></script>
Try it Yourself »