What's the difference between ngOnInit and ngAfterViewInit of Angular2?

Question

I can not understand what the difference between ngOnInit and ngAfterViewInit.

I found the only difference between them is @ViewChild. According to the following code, the elementRef.nativeElement in them are the same.

What scene should we use ngAfterViewInit?

@Component({
  selector: 'my-child-view',
  template: `
  <div id="my-child-view-id">{{hero}}</div>
  `
})
export class ChildViewComponent {
  @Input() hero: string = 'Jack';
}

//////////////////////
@Component({
  selector: 'after-view',
  template: `
    <div id="after-view-id">-- child view begins --</div>
      <my-child-view [hero]="heroName"></my-child-view>
    <div>-- child view ends --</div>`
    + `
    <p *ngIf="comment" class="comment">
      {{comment}}
    </p>
  `
})
export class AfterViewComponent implements AfterViewInit, OnInit {
  private prevHero = '';
  public heroName = 'Tom';
  public comment = '';

  // Query for a VIEW child of type `ChildViewComponent`
  @ViewChild(ChildViewComponent) viewChild: ChildViewComponent;

  constructor(private logger: LoggerService, private elementRef: ElementRef) {
  }

  ngOnInit() {
    console.log('OnInit');
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('#my-child-view-id'));
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('#after-view-id'));
    console.log(this.viewChild);
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('p'));
  }

  ngAfterViewInit() {
    console.log('AfterViewInit');
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('#my-child-view-id'));
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('#after-view-id'));
    console.log(this.viewChild);
    console.log(this.elementRef.nativeElement.querySelector('p'));
  }
}

Answer 1

ngOnInit() is called after ngOnChanges() was called the first time. ngOnChanges() is called every time inputs are updated by change detection.

ngAfterViewInit() is called after the view is initially rendered. This is why @ViewChild() depends on it. You can't access view members before they are rendered.