What Are Directives in Angular?

The Angular directives are classes that enable developers to extend HTML by adding new behavior to the template elements or modifying an existing behavior. They play a major role in defining the DOM structure and enhancing the HTML capabilities.

The directives could be used to add or remove elements or even to change the appearance of the DOM elements.

What are the different types of directives in Angular?

Angular offers three types of directives:

1. Component directives – the most common Angular directive used to create reusable Angular UI components. The component directives are the building blocks of Angular apps, encapsulating both the UI and the behavior of certain parts of the application.
2. Structural directives – this type of directives is used to modify the DOM structure by adding or moving specific elements. The most popular ones are ngIf, ngFor and ngSwitch.
3. Attribute directives – these directives are used to change the appearance or behavior of an element, component or another directive are typically applied as attributes on the HTML elements. Popular examples include ngClass, ngStyle, and ngModel.

What are custom directives in Angular?

Additionally, developers can create customer directives to extend the Angular capabilities. The customer directives can be either structural, attribute or both. They are particularly useful for encapsulating complex behavior and making the code more modular.

What are some common use cases for directives in Angular applications?

To sum up, Angular directives are an essential tool for building interactive web applications. They enable you to modify the DOM, manage the elements rendering and encapsulate reusable behavior. Mastering and utilizing the different directives will help you to build more flexible and easier to maintain Angular applications.