Angular JS how to update scope variable inside another scope variable

Question

I am bulding a list using ng-repeat from array of objects. One of the property in array is a boolean that will go in ng-show of each element I am building using this array. Array itself is a scope variable too.

Now I want to update display property only. Is it possible?

var app = angular.module('plunker', []);
app.controller('MainCtrl', function($scope) {
 $scope.displayThird = false;
 $scope.list = [
 {
 text: "One",
 display: true
 },
 {
 text: "Two",
 display: true
 },
 {
 text: "Three",
 display: $scope.displayThird
 },
 {
 text: "Four",
 display: true
 }
 ];
 /* I want this function to update my display property */
 $scope.display = function() {
 $scope.displayThird = true;
 }
});

http://plnkr.co/edit/kF1M1fWyeCcrfcUY3Aqu?p=preview

• charlietfl: is this what you are trying to do? plnkr.co/edit/1S4AWMQ1gLUr9li03Xje?p=preview
• Yuri: @charlietfl - yes, ultimately this is what I wanted to achieve. But I wanted something where I don't need to specify array index, incase I don't know it. Nikos' answer helped me realise why I couldn't do it the way I wanted.
• charlietfl: you can pass in the specific item also, then get it's index from within controller. var idx= $scope.list.indexOf(item)

Answer 1

This is a common misconception: When you assign an expression to a variable in Javascript, only the value of the expression gets assigned. No binding gets created. On the contrary, expressions in Angular templates do create bindings.

Therefore in your case the $scope.list[2].display gets assigned the value false and knows nothing how this value was created.

The correct way to do this in Angular is with a watch:

$scope.$watch("displayThird", function(newval) {
 $scope.list[2].display = newval;
});

This is what Angular does under the hoods with its templates, only you have to do it manually in Javascript.

• Yuri: Thanks very much. I was hoping there's some secret angular method to let it know that this is a scope variable to watch. Thanks for a quick response.