AngularJS introspection utilities

AngularJS ships with various functions to check types, such as angular.isNumber(), angular.isUndefined(), and angular.isElement(). This extension adds many functions to AngularJS' builtins, including a general-purpose type-checking function and a cloning function.

This is particularly useful if you want the type-checking functionality of Lo-Dash or Underscore, but without the libraries themselves. Many of these functions were derived from Lo-Dash implementations.

Each of these functions accept a value and return a boolean.

• isNull() / isNotNull()
• isBoolean() / isNotBoolean()
• isNaN() / isNotNaN()
• isFinite() / isNotFinite()
• isInfinite() / isNotInfinite()
• isArguments() / isNotArguments()
• isRegExp() / isNotRegExp()
• isEmpty() / isNotEmpty()
• isInteger() / isNotInteger()
• isFloat() / isNotFloat()
• isObjectish() / isNotObjectish() (returns true if the value is not null and may contain properties)

In addition, the negation of the AngularJS built-ins are provided:

• isNotUndefined()
• isNotArray()
• isNotDate()
• isNotElement()
• isNotObject()
• isNotString()
• isNotFunction()
• isNotNumber()

The type() function will accept a value and return one of the following strings:

null, string, array, date, regexp, arguments, boolean, number, undefined, function, element, object

An element is considered to be a DOM node, jqLite object, or jQuery object.

The clone() function will return a deep clone of some value. This differs from angular.copy() in the following ways:

• Simply returns the cloned value; does not accept a destination parameter.
• Works on DOM nodes, jqLite elements or jQuery objects.
• If a nested value implements a clone() function, that function will be called. This is useful for complex nested objects.
• Calls angular.copy() internally so your $$hashKeys are not befouled.
• Accepts an optional second Object parameter, extra, which can be extended onto the clone. This is useful, for example, if you have a unique identifier in an object, and wish to re-generate it.

In the browser, if not using AMD, the functions are attached to the angular object as to not further pollute the global scope.

var foo = {
  bar: 1,
  baz: function() {
    return this.bar + 1;
  }
};

angular.isInteger(foo.bar);           // true
angular.type(foo.bar);                // 'number'
angular.isNotFunction(foo.baz);       // false
angular.type(foo.baz);                // 'function'

// example of using second parameter
angular.clone(foo, {bar: 2}).baz();   // 3

In a NodeJS context, require() the angular-types module.

var types = require('angular-types'),
  quux = 1;

types.isInteger(quux);

Using RequireJS, just require types.

define(['/path/to/types'], function(types) {
  var quux = 1;
  types.isInteger(quux);
});

If using in NodeJS (a la Browserify):

npm install angular-types

Otherwise, use Bower:

bower install angular-types

Christopher Hiller

Copyright © 2014 Decipher, Inc. Licensed MIT