How not to use 'this' in Angular?

Question

New to Angular and I'm trying to follow JSLint ( written by Douglas Crockford ) recommendation of not using this in JS at all.

How can I prevent myself to use this in Angular? All the tutorials I've seen so far rely on using this and SO search had resulted in no answer.

For the purpose of being clear, let's assume I'm trying to write this controller:

app.controller('StoreController', function() {
    this.products = {};
});

How can I access the controller object so I can add the products property?

var my_controller = app.controller('StoreController', function() {
});
my_controller.products = {}; // Maybe like this?

Angular (and most other frameworks) will not work with that recommendation. — SLaks, Jan 21 '16 at 23:01
Well first off, `this` is not used in controllers by standard. You use `$scope`, you inject `$scope` into your controller and use it exclusively. The only time I ever use `this` is in a service. — Paul Carlton, Jan 21 '16 at 23:01
There's nothing wrong with using `this`, as long as you use it appropriately. — Roddy of the Frozen Peas, Jan 21 '16 at 23:01
[this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11605917/this-vs-scope-in-angularjs-controllers#answer-14168699) can be helpful in scenarios. (pun intended) — pfluggs11, Jan 21 '16 at 23:06

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 21 '16 at 23:00

Inject $scope, for example:

app.controller('StoreController', function($scope) {
    $scope.products = {};
});

Here is more information about them: https://docs.angularjs.org/guide/scope

Also, when using things like services, you can avoid this by keeping a local state and returning an interface object. For example:

.service('MyService', function(){
    // state
    var mystate = {};

    // interface object
    return {
        someExposedFunc: function(){

        }
    };
});

I would just like to note though, that I don't see any good reason why you should avoid this when using angular. I think using $scope has more semantic usefulness when reading controller code, but when using things like services, I write less code by creating exposed functions like this.somefunc = ....

Thanks for the quick reply. In JS, he had decent reasons not to use 'this'. I had the assumption that it applies to Angular, or any other JS framework. Based on your reply and other people's comments, apparently it doesn't. — Sam Hosseini, Jan 21 '16 at 23:35

How not to use 'this' in Angular?

1 Answers1