What is difference between following agularjs controller definition? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

What is the purpose of square bracket usage in Angular? (4 answers)

Closed 9 years ago.

var app = angular.module('myApp', []); app.controller('myController', ['$scope', function($scope, []) { ..... }]);

and

var app = angular.module('myApp', []); app.controller('myController', function($scope, []) { ..... });

In first example, square brackets are used around the callback function, but in second example, there are no square brackets around the callback function.

Answer 1

The second one is used for protection against minification mangling, because when you mangle the first version, you get let's say

var b = a.module('myApp', []);
b.controller('myController', function(a, []) {
      .....
      // if you use $scope here it will get mangled and may not be what you expect, this potentially breaks the code
});

Whereas if you use the second one you protect your variables so that angular knows how you assign injected dependencies and your code does not break anymore woohoo!

Answer 2

You can inject dependencies with a string and variable name, this is used for minification since variable/parameters names are being evaluated and injected.

The first example should actually be written like so:

var app = angular.module('myApp', []);
app.controller('myController',[ '$scope', function($scope, []) {
      .....
]});