What is the difference between a module and a component in Angular?

Q: What is the difference between a module and a component in Angular?

Learn the answer to "What is the difference between a module and a component in Angular?" with detailed explanations, code examples, and best practices on DeployU.

The Scenario

You are a frontend engineer at a social media company. You are building a new feature that will be used in multiple places in the application.

You are not sure whether to create a new module or a new component.

The Challenge

Explain the difference between a module and a component in Angular. What are the pros and cons of each approach, and which one would you choose for this use case?

Wrong Approach

A junior engineer might think that they are interchangeable. They might not be aware of the difference in purpose or the design implications of choosing one over the other.

Addresses symptoms, not root cause

Right Approach

A senior engineer would be able to provide a detailed explanation of the differences between a module and a component. They would also be able to explain the trade-offs between each approach and would have a clear recommendation for which one to use in this use case.

Step 1: Understand the Key Differences

Feature	Component	Module
Purpose	To create a new UI element with its own template and logic.	To group related components, directives, pipes, and services together.
Template	Has a template.	Does not have a template.
Syntax	`@Component`	`@NgModule`
Use Cases	When you need to create a new UI element.	When you need to organize your application into logical blocks of functionality.

Step 2: Choose the Right Tool for the Job

For our use case, we should create a new module that contains the new component. This will allow us to easily reuse the component in multiple places in the application.

Step 3: Code Examples

Here’s how we can create a new module and a new component:

my-feature.module.ts:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { CommonModule } from '@angular/common';
import { MyFeatureComponent } from './my-feature.component';

@NgModule({
  imports: [
    CommonModule
  ],
  declarations: [
    MyFeatureComponent
  ],
  exports: [
    MyFeatureComponent
  ]
})
export class MyFeatureModule { }

my-feature.component.ts:

import { Component } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
  selector: 'my-feature',
  template: '<h1>My Feature</h1>'
})
export class MyFeatureComponent {}

Systematic, production-ready debugging

Practice Question

You are building a new application and you want to organize your code into logical blocks of functionality. Which of the following would you use?

Questions