Understanding the ngRepeat 'track by' expression

Question

I'm having difficulties understanding how the track by expression of ng-repeat in angularjs works. The documentation is very scarce: http://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive/ngRepeat

Can you explain what the difference between those two snippets of code is in terms of databinding and other relevant aspects?

with: track by $index

<!--names is an array-->
<div ng-repeat="(key, value) in names track by $index">
  <input ng-model="value[key]">                         
</div>

without (same output)

<!--names is an array-->
<div ng-repeat="(key, value) in names">
   <input ng-model="value[key]">                         
</div>

Answer 1

You can track by $index if your data source has duplicate identifiers

e.g.: $scope.dataSource: [{id:1,name:'one'}, {id:1,name:'one too'}, {id:2,name:'two'}]

You can't iterate this collection while using 'id' as identifier (duplicate id:1).

WON'T WORK:

<element ng-repeat="item.id as item.name for item in dataSource">
  // something with item ...
</element>

but you can, if using track by $index:

<element ng-repeat="item in dataSource track by $index">
  // something with item ...
</element>