$timeout & this

[Siyfion]

Given your controller with a $timeout:

function MainCtrl ($timeout) {
  this.clock = 'loading...';
  this.someObject = {};
  this.doSomething = function () {

  };

  var tick = function () {
    var today = new Date();
    // 'this.clock' isn't accessible here 
    $timeout(tick, 1000);
  };

  // Call it the first time to kick it off
  $timeout(tick, 0);
}

Should I be assigning a local variable like:

var _this = this;

// Then use (in the tick function):
_this.clock = today;

[jillesme]

I'll just add my two cents here, because I had a similar question and Todd told me he uses

var vm = this;

Where vm stands for ViewModel, I think it's really nice.

Cheers

[toddmotto]

Indeed I use vm = this;, as the controller is really a ViewModel here.

[johnpapa]

👍 Another reason why I use capture variable. Nice point

[Siyfion]

Yeah, after finding this issue and doing a bit of digging, I stumbled across your styleguide @johnpapa and I've done it the same way you suggest in this case.

@toddmotto might be worth adding something to the docs in the $timeout bit to push people in the right direction?

[toddmotto]

This is more to do with JavaScript and the lexical scope rules this doesn't follow, rather than Angular itself.