A structural directive that conditionally includes a template based on the value of an expression coerced to Boolean. When the expression evaluates to true, Angular renders the template provided in a then clause, and when false or null, Angular renders the template provided in an optional else clause. The default template for the else clause is blank.

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NgModule

• CommonModule

Selectors

• [ngIf]

Properties

Property	Description
@Input()ngIf: T	Write-Only The Boolean expression to evaluate as the condition for showing a template.
@Input()ngIfThen: TemplateRef<NgIfContext<T>>	Write-Only A template to show if the condition expression evaluates to true.
@Input()ngIfElse: TemplateRef<NgIfContext<T>>	Write-Only A template to show if the condition expression evaluates to false.

Description

A shorthand form of the directive, *ngIf="condition", is generally used, provided as an attribute of the anchor element for the inserted template. Angular expands this into a more explicit version, in which the anchor element is contained in an <ng-template> element.

Simple form with shorthand syntax:

<div *ngIf="condition">Content to render when condition is true.</div>

Simple form with expanded syntax:

<ng-template [ngIf]="condition"><div>Content to render when condition is
true.</div></ng-template>

Form with an "else" block:

<div *ngIf="condition; else elseBlock">Content to render when condition is true.</div>
<ng-template #elseBlock>Content to render when condition is false.</ng-template>

Shorthand form with "then" and "else" blocks:

<div *ngIf="condition; then thenBlock else elseBlock"></div>
<ng-template #thenBlock>Content to render when condition is true.</ng-template>
<ng-template #elseBlock>Content to render when condition is false.</ng-template>

Form with storing the value locally:

<div *ngIf="condition as value; else elseBlock">{{value}}</div>
<ng-template #elseBlock>Content to render when value is null.</ng-template>

The *ngIf directive is most commonly used to conditionally show an inline template, as seen in the following example. The default else template is blank.

@Component({
  selector: 'ng-if-simple',
  template: `
    <button (click)="show = !show">{{show ? 'hide' : 'show'}}</button>
    show = {{show}}
    <br>
    <div *ngIf="show">Text to show</div>
`
})
export class NgIfSimple {
  show = true;
}

Showing an alternative template using else

To display a template when expression evaluates to false, use an else template binding as shown in the following example. The else binding points to an <ng-template> element labeled #elseBlock. The template can be defined anywhere in the component view, but is typically placed right after ngIf for readability.

@Component({
  selector: 'ng-if-else',
  template: `
    <button (click)="show = !show">{{show ? 'hide' : 'show'}}</button>
    show = {{show}}
    <br>
    <div *ngIf="show; else elseBlock">Text to show</div>
    <ng-template #elseBlock>Alternate text while primary text is hidden</ng-template>
`
})
export class NgIfElse {
  show = true;
}

Using an external then template

In the previous example, the then-clause template is specified inline, as the content of the tag that contains the ngIf directive. You can also specify a template that is defined externally, by referencing a labeled <ng-template> element. When you do this, you can change which template to use at runtime, as shown in the following example.

@Component({
  selector: 'ng-if-then-else',
  template: `
    <button (click)="show = !show">{{show ? 'hide' : 'show'}}</button>
    <button (click)="switchPrimary()">Switch Primary</button>
    show = {{show}}
    <br>
    <div *ngIf="show; then thenBlock; else elseBlock">this is ignored</div>
    <ng-template #primaryBlock>Primary text to show</ng-template>
    <ng-template #secondaryBlock>Secondary text to show</ng-template>
    <ng-template #elseBlock>Alternate text while primary text is hidden</ng-template>
`
})
export class NgIfThenElse implements OnInit {
  thenBlock: TemplateRef<any>|null = null;
  show = true;

  @ViewChild('primaryBlock', {static: true}) primaryBlock: TemplateRef<any>|null = null;
  @ViewChild('secondaryBlock', {static: true}) secondaryBlock: TemplateRef<any>|null = null;

  switchPrimary() {
    this.thenBlock = this.thenBlock === this.primaryBlock ? this.secondaryBlock : this.primaryBlock;
  }

  ngOnInit() {
    this.thenBlock = this.primaryBlock;
  }
}

Storing a conditional result in a variable

You might want to show a set of properties from the same object. If you are waiting for asynchronous data, the object can be undefined. In this case, you can use ngIf and store the result of the condition in a local variable as shown in the the following example.

@Component({
  selector: 'ng-if-as',
  template: `
    <button (click)="nextUser()">Next User</button>
    <br>
    <div *ngIf="userObservable | async as user; else loading">
      Hello {{user.last}}, {{user.first}}!
    </div>
    <ng-template #loading let-user>Waiting... (user is {{user|json}})</ng-template>
`
})
export class NgIfAs {
  userObservable = new Subject<{first: string, last: string}>();
  first = ['John', 'Mike', 'Mary', 'Bob'];
  firstIndex = 0;
  last = ['Smith', 'Novotny', 'Angular'];
  lastIndex = 0;

  nextUser() {
    let first = this.first[this.firstIndex++];
    if (this.firstIndex >= this.first.length) this.firstIndex = 0;
    let last = this.last[this.lastIndex++];
    if (this.lastIndex >= this.last.length) this.lastIndex = 0;
    this.userObservable.next({first, last});
  }
}

This code uses only one AsyncPipe, so only one subscription is created. The conditional statement stores the result of userStream|async in the local variable user. You can then bind the local user repeatedly.

The conditional displays the data only if userStream returns a value, so you don't need to use the safe-navigation-operator (?.) to guard against null values when accessing properties. You can display an alternative template while waiting for the data.

Shorthand syntax

The shorthand syntax *ngIf expands into two separate template specifications for the "then" and "else" clauses. For example, consider the following shorthand statement, that is meant to show a loading page while waiting for data to be loaded.

<div class="hero-list" *ngIf="heroes else loading">
 ...
</div>

<ng-template #loading>
 <div>Loading...</div>
</ng-template>

You can see that the "else" clause references the <ng-template> with the #loading label, and the template for the "then" clause is provided as the content of the anchor element.

However, when Angular expands the shorthand syntax, it creates another <ng-template> tag, with ngIf and ngIfElse directives. The anchor element containing the template for the "then" clause becomes the content of this unlabeled <ng-template> tag.

<ng-template [ngIf]="heroes" [ngIfElse]="loading">
 <div class="hero-list">
  ...
 </div>
</ng-template>

<ng-template #loading>
 <div>Loading...</div>
</ng-template>

The presence of the implicit template object has implications for the nesting of structural directives. For more on this subject, see Structural Directives.

Static properties

Property

Description

static ngTemplateGuard_ngIf: 'binding'

Assert the correct type of the expression bound to the ngIf input within the template. The presence of this static field is a signal to the Ivy template type check compiler that when the NgIf structural directive renders its template, the type of the expression bound to ngIf should be narrowed in some way. For NgIf, the binding expression itself is used to narrow its type, which allows the strictNullChecks feature of TypeScript to work with NgIf.

Static methods

ngTemplateContextGuard()
Asserts the correct type of the context for the template that NgIf will render.
static ngTemplateContextGuard<T>(dir: NgIf<T>, ctx: any): ctx is NgIfContext<Exclude<T, false | 0 | '' | null | undefined>> Parameters dir NgIf ctx any Returns ctx is NgIfContext<Exclude<T, false | 0 | '' | null | undefined>>
The presence of this method is a signal to the Ivy template type-check compiler that the NgIf structural directive renders its template with a specific context type.