angular.service vs angular.factory

Question

I have seen both angular.factory() and angular.service() used to declare services; however, I cannot find angular.service anywhere in official documentation.

Answer 1

Here are the primary differences:

Services

Syntax: module.service( 'serviceName', function );

Result: When declaring serviceName as an injectable argument you will be provided with the instance of a function passed to module.service.

Usage: Could be useful for sharing utility functions that are useful to invoke by simply appending ( ) to the injected function reference. Could also be run with injectedArg.call( this ) or similar.

Factories

Syntax: module.factory( 'factoryName', function );

Result: When declaring factoryName as an injectable argument you will be provided with the value that is returned by invoking the function reference passed to module.factory.

Usage: Could be useful for returning a 'class' function that can then be new'ed to create instances.

Here is example using services and factory. Read more about AngularJS Service vs Factory.

You can also check the AngularJS documentation and similar question on stackoverflow confused about service vs factory.