Angular 2 Cannot find control with unspecified name attribute on formArrays

Question

I am trying to iterate over a formArray in my component but I get the following error

Error: Cannot find control with unspecified name attribute

Here is what the logic looks like on my class file

export class AreasFormComponent implements OnInit {
    public initialState: any;
    public areasForm: FormGroup;

    constructor(private fb: FormBuilder) { }

    private area(): any {
      return this.fb.group({
          name: ['', [Validators.required]],
          latLong: ['', [Validators.required]],
          details: ['', [Validators.required]]
      });
    }

    public ngOnInit(): void {
        this.areasForm = this.fb.group({
            name: ['', [Validators.required]],
            areas: this.fb.array([this.area()])
        });
    }
}

and my template file

<form class="areas-form" [formGroup]="areasForm" (ngSubmit)="onSubmit(areasForm.values)">
    <md-input-container class="full-width">
        <input mdInput placeholder="Location Name" type="text" formControlName="name" required>
        <md-error *ngIf="areasForm.get('name').hasError('required')">Please enter the locationName</md-error>
    </md-input-container>
    <md-grid-list cols="1" [formArrayName]="areas">
        <md-grid-tile formGroupName="i"  colspan="1" rowHeight="62px" *ngFor="let area of areasForm.controls.areas.controls; let i = index ">
            <md-grid-list cols="3" rowHeight="60px">
                <md-grid-tile colspan="1">
                    <md-input-container class="full-width">
                        <input mdInput placeholder="Area Name" type="text" formControlName="name" required>
                        <md-error *ngIf="areasForm.get('areas').controls[i].name.hasError('required')">Please enter the area name</md-error>
                    </md-input-container>
                </md-grid-tile>
                <md-grid-tile colspan="1">
                    <md-input-container class="full-width">
                        <input mdInput placeholder="details" type="text" formControlName="details" required>
                        <md-error *ngIf="areasForm.get('areas').controls[i].name.hasError('required')">Please enter the locationName</md-error>
                    </md-input-container>
                </md-grid-tile>
                <md-grid-tile colspan="1">
                    <button md-fab (click)="remove(i)"><md-icon>subtract</md-icon>Remove Area</button>
                </md-grid-tile>
            </md-grid-list>
        </md-grid-tile>
    </md-grid-list>
    <button type="submit" [disabled]="areasForm.invalid" md-raised-button color="primary">Submit</button>
</form>

Answer 1

Remove the brackets from

[formArrayName]="areas" 

and use only

formArrayName="areas"

This, because with [ ] you are trying to bind a variable, which this is not. Also notice your submit, it should be:

(ngSubmit)="onSubmit(areasForm.value)"

instead of areasForm.values.

Answer 2

In my case I solved the issue by putting the name of the formControl in double and sinlge quotes so that it is interpreted as a string:

[formControlName]="'familyName'"

similar to below:

formControlName="familyName"

Answer 3

The problem for me was that I had

[formControlName]=""

Instead of

formControlName=""

Answer 4

Instead of

formGroupName="i"

You must use:

[formGroupName]="i"

Tips:

Since you're looping over the controls, you've already the variable area, so you can replace this:

*ngIf="areasForm.get('areas').controls[i].name.hasError('required')"

by:

*ngIf="area.hasError('required', 'name')"