Angular 4 ExpressionChangedAfterItHasBeenCheckedError

Question

in ParentComponent =>

ExpressionChangedAfterItHasBeenCheckedError: Expression has changed after it was checked. Previous value: ''. Current value: '[object Object]'.
            at viewDebugError (vendor.bundle.js:8962)
            at expressionChangedAfterItHasBeenCheckedError (vendor.bundle.js:8940)

Parent component Html

<div>
  <app-child-widget [allItems]="allItems" (notify)="eventCalled($event)"></app-child-widget>
<div>

Parent component

export class ParentComponent implements OnInit {

  returnedItems: Array<any> = [];
  allItems: Array<any> = [];

  constructor(
  ) { }

  ngOnInit() {
     this.allItems = // load from server...
  }

  eventCalled(items: Array<any>): void {
    this.returnedItems = items;
  }
}

Child component

@Component({
  selector: 'app-child-widget',
  templateUrl: 'child.component.html',
  styleUrls: ['./child.component.css']
})
export class ChildComponent implements OnInit {
  @Output() notify: EventEmitter<any> = new EventEmitter();
  @Input() private allItems: Array<any>;

  constructor() { }

  ngOnInit() {
    doSomething();
  }

  doSomething() {
    this.notify.emit(allItems);
  }
}

Answer 1

The article Everything you need to know about the ExpressionChangedAfterItHasBeenCheckedError error explains this behavior in great details

Cause

Your problem is very similar to this one but instead of updating parent property through a service you're updating it through synchronous event broadcasting. Here is the quote from the linked answer :

During digest cycle Angular performs certain operations on child directives. One of such operations is updating inputs and calling ngOnInit lifecycle hook on child directives/components. What's important is that these operations are performed in strict order:

• Update inputs
• Call ngOnInit

So in your case Angular updated input binding allItems on child component, then called onInit on child component which caused an update to allItems of parent component. Now you have data inconsistency. Parent component has one value while the child another. If Angular continues synchronizing changes you'll get an infinite loop. That's why during next change detection cycle Angular detected that allItems was changed and thrown an error.

Solution

It seems that this is an application design flaw as you're updating details from both parent and child component. If it's not, then you can solve the problem by emitting the event asynchronously like this:

export class ChildComponent implements OnInit {
  @Output() notify: EventEmitter<any> = new EventEmitter(true);
                                                        ^^^^^^-------------

But you have to be very careful. If you use any other hook like ngAfterViewChecked that is being called on every digest cycle, you'll end up in cyclic dependency!

Answer 2

In my case, I was changing the state of my data--this answer requires you to read AngularInDepth.com explanation of digest cycle -- inside the html level, all I had to do was change the way I was handling the data like so:

<div>{{event.subjects.pop()}}</div>

into

<div>{{event.subjects[0]}}</div>

Summary: instead of popping--which returns and remove the last element of an array thus changing the state of my data-- I used the normal way of getting my data without changing its state thus preventing the exception.

Answer 3

When Getting this error, you can use a rxjs timer to delay the call for a short time.

This example uses the @angular/material stepper to load a default step from the query params in the url.

import { timer } from 'rxjs'

@Component({
  template: `
    <mat-horizontal-stepper #stepper>
      <mat-step></mat-step>
      <mat-step></mat-step>
      <mat-step></mat-step>
    </mat-horizontal-stepper>
  `
})
export class MyComponent {
  @ViewChild('stepper', { static: true })
  private stepper: MatHorizontalStepper

  public ngOnInit() {
    timer(10).subscribe(() => {
      this.activatedRoute.queryParams.subscribe(params => {
        this.stepper.selectedIndex = parseInt(params.step || 0)
      })
    })
  }
}