Using ng-repeat in a range

AngularJS, the popular JavaScript framework, is known for its powerful directives, and ng-repeat is one of them, allowing us to repeat an element based on a collection. However, sometimes, we need to repeat an element a specific number of times, not based on an existing array. By default, AngularJS does not provide this functionality, but we can extend it with a custom filter.

Creating a Range Filter

To achieve this, we can create a simple filter named range. This filter will generate an array of numbers from 0 to the specified count, which we can then use with ng-repeat.

Here's how we can define this filter:

'use strict'
angular.module('MYAPP').filter('range', function () {
  return function (input, total) {
    total = parseInt(total, 10)
    for (var i = 0; i < total; i++) {
      input.push(i)
    }
    return input
  }
})

In this snippet, we define a filter range that takes two parameters: input and total. The total parameter specifies the number of times the element should be repeated. The filter then populates an array from 0 to total - 1.

Basic Usage

To use this filter with ng-repeat, you would write something like the following in your HTML:

<div ng-repeat="n in [] | range:X">{{$index}} - This will repeat X times.</div>

Replace X with the number of times you want to repeat the element. The ng-repeat directive will iterate over the array generated by the range filter.

Conclusion

While AngularJS does not natively support repeating an element a fixed number of times, this custom range filter provides a neat and straightforward way to extend ng-repeat functionality to cover this use case.

Remember, this approach is specific to AngularJS (the predecessor of Angular 2+). In newer versions of Angular, you might use different techniques due to the changes in the framework's architecture and capabilities.