Why is a function in ng-repeat called several times?

Question

I want to supply a ng-repeat element by a controller function as follows:

Answer 1

I would really avoid calling a function insides a ngRepeat attribute, since it will give errors and unexpected behaviour.

But to be honest I dont think that you would need to call a function inside a ngRepeat. I would suggest to do the following:

$scope.getPictures = function(pictures) {
        alert("function called");
        //return... extract all pictures and return as array
};

$scope.allPictures = $scope.getPictures();

This way the $scope.getPictures function will get called and the $scope.allPictures will be created. ngRepeat can call that collection instead of a function.

See also my Fiddle: https://jsfiddle.net/ABr/w6kc8qyh/1/