Why does filterFilter take out null values when compared with '' in 1.2.x

[gizm0bill]

example:

var expr = { name: '', email: '', contact: ''},
    array = [
      { email: 'a@b.c', name: 'a', contact: null },
      { email: 'a@b.c', name: 'b', contact: '' }
    ];
expect( filter( array, expr ) ).toEqual([ array[0], array[1] ]);

will fail in 1.2.x which in some cases should not.
I'm using this SmartTable module in a project, and it fails displaying data in the table because of this new filter behavior, and it shouldn't in this context.

[petebacondarwin]

I guess this is because of this commit: 3bc4e7f?
Here is a plunker demonstrating your example: http://plnkr.co/edit/wKKZ6SNhMP7Dr4k4UfXh?p=preview

[petebacondarwin]

Can you specify exactly what aspect of SmartTable is failing with this filterFilter behaviour? Perhaps you can put together a demo on Plunker?

[petebacondarwin]

The thing is that, before, we were not matching false values but assuming that false meant catch all. No only undefined corresponds to "catch all". null, false, 0, '' all must match exactly.

I think this is a reasonable expectation and perhaps the issue is really with SmartTable?

[gizm0bill]

Hey, look here's the plunker demonstrating the issue.
And that is what I was asking, is it a reasonable expectation to have this behavior? That's why I opened an issue on SmartTable's repository as well.
In this context, the table should display null, false or '' as blank, but the filter takes out the whole list item.

[lorenzofox3]

Hi Peter,

what happen in smartTable is that when filtering against the whole table, a predicate object is build like this:
{$:'filteringString', column1:'',column2:'', column3:''}

The issue is because column properties take precedence over the $. So I think this could be fixed in smart table by deleting the column properties of the predicate object instead of setting it to '' (empty string).

But following the logic you mentioned, by using a predicate object like the following:
{$:''} all the items with any property equal to null should be filtered out, right ?

However it is not the case, so I think the filterFilter remains inconsistent.

Laurent

[gizm0bill]

looks to me like this is a sort of a "conflict of interest" thing

[petebacondarwin]

@lorenzofox3 - if you want to match anything then you now need to set the filter property to undefined.