ngModel Formatters and Parsers

This topic was covered really well in a related question: How to do two-way filtering in AngularJS?

To summarize:

• Formatters change how model values will appear in the view.
• Parsers change how view values will be saved in the model.

Here is a simple example, building on an example in the NgModelController api documentation:

  //format text going to user (model to view)
  ngModel.$formatters.push(function(value) {
    return value.toUpperCase();
  });

  //format text from the user (view to model)
  ngModel.$parsers.push(function(value) {
    return value.toLowerCase();
  });

You can see it in action: http://plnkr.co/UQ5q5FxyBzIeEjRYYVGX?plnkr=legacy

<input type="button" value="set to 'misko'" ng-click="data.name='misko'"/>
<input type="button" value="set to 'MISKO'" ng-click="data.name='MISKO'"/>
<input changecase ng-model="data.name" />

When you type a name in (view to model), you will see that the model is always lowercase. But, when you click a button and programatically change the name (model to view), the input field is always uppercase.

Another usage for formatters and parsers is when you want to store dates in UTC time and display them in local time on inputs, I created the below datepicker directive and utcToLocal filter for this.

(function () {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app')
        .directive('datepicker', Directive);

    function Directive($filter) {
        return {
            require: 'ngModel',
            link: function (scope, element, attr, ngModel) {
                element.addClass('datepicker');
                element.pickadate({ format: 'dd/mm/yyyy', editable: true });

                // convert utc date to local for display
                ngModel.$formatters.push(function (utcDate) {
                    if (!utcDate)
                        return;

                    return $filter('utcToLocal')(utcDate, 'dd/MM/yyyy');
                });

                // convert local date to utc for storage
                ngModel.$parsers.push(function (localDate) {
                    if (!localDate)
                        return;

                    return moment(localDate, 'DD/MM/YYYY').utc().toISOString();
                });
            }
        };
    }
})();

It uses this utcToLocal filter that ensures the input date is in the correct format before converting to local time.

(function () {
    'use strict';

    angular
        .module('app')
        .filter('utcToLocal', Filter);

    function Filter($filter) {
        return function (utcDateString, format) {
            if (!utcDateString) {
                return;
            }

            // append 'Z' to the date string to indicate UTC time if the timezone isn't already specified
            if (utcDateString.indexOf('Z') === -1 && utcDateString.indexOf('+') === -1) {
                utcDateString += 'Z';
            }

            return $filter('date')(utcDateString, format);
        };
    }
})();

moment.js is used to convert local to utc dates.

pickadate.js is the datepicker plugin used