[html] How to declare a variable in a template in Angular

For those who decided to use a structural directive as a replacement of *ngIf, keep in mind that the directive context isn't type checked by default. To create a type safe directive ngTemplateContextGuard property should be added, see Typing the directive's context. For example:

import { Directive, Input, TemplateRef, ViewContainerRef } from '@angular/core';

@Directive({
    // don't use 'ng' prefix since it's reserved for Angular
    selector: '[appVar]',
})
export class VarDirective<T = unknown> {
    // https://angular.io/guide/structural-directives#typing-the-directives-context
    static ngTemplateContextGuard<T>(dir: VarDirective<T>, ctx: any): ctx is Context<T> {
        return true;
    }

    private context?: Context<T>;

    constructor(
        private vcRef: ViewContainerRef,
        private templateRef: TemplateRef<Context<T>>
    ) {}

    @Input()
    set appVar(value: T) {
        if (this.context) {
            this.context.appVar = value;
        } else {
            this.context = { appVar: value };
            this.vcRef.createEmbeddedView(this.templateRef, this.context);
        }
    }
}

interface Context<T> {
    appVar: T;
}

The directive can be used just like *ngIf, except that it can store false values:

<ng-container *appVar="false as value">{{value}}</ng-container>

<!-- error: User doesn't have `nam` property-->
<ng-container *appVar="user as user">{{user.nam}}</ng-container>

<ng-container *appVar="user$ | async as user">{{user.name}}</ng-container>

The only drawback compared to *ngIf is that Angular Language Service cannot figure out the variable type so there is no code completion in templates. I hope it will be fixed soon.