difference between setTimeout in javascript and $timeout service in angularjs

Question

Iam new to angular framework.Here is my scenario where, I want to change my $scope.variable after a period of time so i used javascript setTimeout method.

Answer 1

Any AngularJS scope variable when handled from outside (including ajax) needs a $apply().

$timeout() takes care of the current scope and runs in the same digest cycle after all the change detection is done.

One beauty of $timeout() that I recently discovered is, if you do not pass the time parameter, it will wait for the DOM completion.

So,

$timeout(function(){
  console.log("show after directive partial loaded")
}); //note, no time parameter

Run this code in a directive and the timeout callback function will be fired once the partial has been loaded by the directive

Hope this helps.