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+@workInProgress
+@ngdoc overview
+@name Developer Guide: Expression
+@description
+
+# Expressions
+Expressions are the bindings that you write in HTML and embed in templates in order to create
+views in angular. They are not equivalent to JavaScript expressions.
+
+For example, these are all valid expressions in angular:
+
+* `1+2={{1+2}}`
+* `3*10|currency`
+* `Hello {{name}}!`
+* `Hello {{'World'}}!`
+
+
+# angular expressions vs. JS expressions
+It might be tempting to think of angular view expressions as JavaScript expressions, but that is
+not entirely correct. angular does not use a simple JavaScript eval of the expression text. You
+can think of angular expressions as JavaScript expressions with these differences:
+
+ * **Attribute Evaluation:** evaluation of all attributes are against the current scope, not to
+ the global window as in JavaScript.
+ * **Forgiving:** expression evaluation is forgiving to undefined and null, unlike in JavaScript.
+ * **No Control Flow Statements:** you cannot do the following from an angular expression:
+ conditionals, loops, or throw.
+ * **Type Augmentation:** the scope expression evaluator augments built-in types.
+ * **Filters:** you can add filters to an expression, for example to convert raw data into a
+ human-readable format.
+ * **The $:** angular reserves this prefix to differentiate its API names from others.
+
+If you want to run arbitrary JavaScript code, make it a controller method and call that. If you
+want to eval an angular expression from JavaScript, use the Scope:$eval() method.
+
+## Example
+<doc:example>
+ <doc:source>
+ 1+2={{1+2}}
+ </doc:source>
+ <doc:scenario>
+ it('should calculate expression in binding', function(){
+ expect(binding('1+2')).toEqual('3');
+ });
+ </doc:scenario>
+</doc:example>
+
+You can try evaluating different expressions here:
+
+<doc:example>
+ <doc:source>
+ <div ng:init="exprs=[]" class="expressions">
+ Expression:
+ <input type='text' name="expr" value="3*10|currency" size="80"/>
+ <button ng:click="exprs.$add(expr)">Evaluate</button>
+ <ul>
+ <li ng:repeat="expr in exprs">
+ [ <a href="" ng:click="exprs.$remove(expr)">X</a> ]
+ <tt>{{expr}}</tt> => <span ng:bind="$parent.$eval(expr)"></span>
+ </li>
+ </ul>
+ </div>
+ </doc:source>
+ <doc:scenario>
+ it('should allow user expression testing', function(){
+ element('.expressions :button').click();
+ var li = using('.expressions ul').repeater('li');
+ expect(li.count()).toBe(1);
+ expect(li.row(0)).toEqual(["3*10|currency", "$30.00"]);
+ });
+ </doc:scenario>
+</doc:example>
+
+# Attribute Evaluation
+
+Evaluation of all attributes are against the current scope. Unlike JavaScript, where names
+default to global window properties, angular expressions have to use $window to refer to the
+global object. E.g. if you want to call alert(), which is defined on window, an expression must
+use $window.alert(). This is done intentionally to prevent accidental access to the global state
+(a common source of subtle bugs).
+
+<doc:example>
+ <doc:source>
+ <div class="example2" ng:init="$window = $service('$window')">
+ Name: <input name="name" type="text" value="World"/>
+ <button ng:click="($window.mockWindow || $window).alert('Hello ' + name)">Greet</button>
+ </div>
+ </doc:source>
+ <doc:scenario>
+ it('should calculate expression in binding', function(){
+ var alertText;
+ this.addFutureAction('set mock', function($window, $document, done) {
+ $window.mockWindow = {
+ alert: function(text){ alertText = text; }
+ };
+ done();
+ });
+ element(':button:contains(Greet)').click();
+ expect(this.addFuture('alert text', function(done) {
+ done(null, alertText);
+ })).toBe('Hello World');
+ });
+ </doc:scenario>
+</doc:example>
+
+## Forgiving
+
+Expression evaluation is forgiving to undefined and null. In JavaScript, evaluating a.b.c throws
+an exception if a is not an object. While this makes sense for a general purpose language, the
+expression evaluations are primarily used for data binding, which often look like this: `{{a.b.c}}`.
+It makes more sense to show nothing than to throw an exception if a is undefined (e.g. perhaps
+we are waiting for the server response, and it will become defined soon). If expression
+evaluation wasn't forgiving we'd have to write bindings that clutter the code, for example:
+`{{((a||{}).b||{}).c}}`
+
+Similarly, invoking a function a.b.c() on undefined or null simply returns undefined.
+
+Assignments work the same way in reverse. a.b.c = 10 creates the intermediary objects even if a
+is undefined.
+
+
+## No Control Flow Statements
+
+You cannot write a control flow statement in an expression. The reason behind this is core to
+the angular philosophy that application logic should be in controllers, not in the view. If you
+need a conditional (including ternary operators), loop, or to throw from a view expression,
+delegate to a JavaScript method instead.
+
+
+## Type Augmentation
+
+Built-in types have methods like [].push(), but the richness of these methods is limited. Consider
+the example below, which allows you to do a simple search over a canned set of contacts. The
+example would be much more complicated if we did not have the Array:$filter(). There is no
+built-in method on Array called $filter and angular doesn't add it to Array.prototype because that
+could collide with other JavaScript frameworks.
+
+For this reason the scope expression evaluator augments the built-in types to make them act like
+they have extra methods. The actual method for $filter() is angular.Array.filter(). You can call
+it from JavaScript.
+
+Extensions: You can further extend the expression vocabulary by adding new methods to
+`angular.Array` or `angular.String`, etc.
+
+<doc:example>
+ <doc:source>
+ <div ng:init="friends = [
+ {name:'John', phone:'555-1212'},
+ {name:'Mary', phone:'555-9876'},
+ {name:'Mike', phone:'555-4321'},
+ {name:'Adam', phone:'555-5678'},
+ {name:'Julie', phone:'555-8765'}]"></div>
+ Search: <input name="searchText"/>
+ <table class="example3">
+ <tr><th>Name</th><th>Phone</th><tr>
+ <tr ng:repeat="friend in friends.$filter(searchText)">
+ <td>{{friend.name}}</td>
+ <td>{{friend.phone}}</td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ </doc:source>
+ <doc:scenario>
+ it('should filter the list', function(){
+ var tr = using('table.example3').repeater('tr.ng-attr-widget');
+ expect(tr.count()).toBe(5);
+ input('searchText').enter('a');
+ expect(tr.count()).toBe(2);
+
+ });
+ </doc:scenario>
+</doc:example>
+
+## Filters
+
+When presenting data to the user, you might need to convert the data from its raw format to a
+user-friendly format. For example, you might have a data object that needs to be formatted
+according to the locale before displaying it to the user. You can pass expressions through a
+chain of filters like this:
+
+<pre>
+name | uppercase
+</pre>
+
+The expression evaluator simply passes the value of name to angular.filter.uppercase.
+
+Chain filters using this syntax:
+
+<pre>
+value | filter1 | filter2
+</pre>
+
+You can also pass colon-delimited arguments to filters, for example, to display the number 123
+with 2 decimal points: 123 | number:2
+
+# The $
+
+You might be wondering, what is the significance of the $ prefix? It is simply a prefix that
+angular chooses to differentiate its API names from others. If angular didn't use $, then
+evaluating a.length() would return undefined because neither a nor angular define such a property.
+Consider that in a future version of angular we might choose to add a length method, in which case
+the behavior of the expression would change. Worse yet, you the developer could create a length
+property and then we would have collision. This problem exists because angular augments existing
+objects with additional behavior. By prefixing its additions with $ we are reserving our namespace
+so that angular developers and developers who use angular can develop in harmony without
+collisions.
+
+