Initializing all ng-model from controller on load Angularjs

Question

I am stuck into a problem where I am suppose to get all the ng-models which are declared as ng-model="a['keyX'] and initialize them to 0 before the user starts giving inputs..

Due to some reasons I cannot use ng-value.

I tried to get $scope.a into my initializeToZero() function. It returns an empty json object.

I even tried using $scope.$apply() but my bad luck.

All I get is only an empty json object.

Is there any way I can initialize them all in the controller irrespective to number of inputs and keys?

The names of keys would be all different... I just provided generic key names here... So make sure that you do not hard code it.

I have mentioned ng-controller for the snippet but I am using ui.router

angular.module('myApp', [])
  .controller('myCtrl', function($scope) {
  

    initializeToZero();

    function initializeToZero() {
      if (!$scope.$$phase) {
        $scope.$apply();
        console.log($scope.a);
      } else {
        
        setTimeout(initializeToZero, 1000);
      }
    }



  });

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/angularjs/1.2.23/angular.min.js"></script>
<div ng-app="myApp" ng-controller="myCtrl" ng-init="a = {}">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key1']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key2']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key3']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key4']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key5']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key6']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key7']">
  <input type="number" ng-model="a['key8']">


</div>

Answer 1

Finally Cracked it... A bit of dirty coding has to be done.. But its alright.. here is the code..

function application(){
        $('input[ng-model^="a"]').each(function(){
            $(this).val(0);
        }); 
}

$scope.initializeToZero = function(){
    console.log("Called initializeToZero");
    if(!$scope.$$phase)
    {
        $scope.$apply(application);
        console.log("Applied");
    }
    else{
        console.log("REDOING");
        setTimeout($scope.initializeToZero,1000);
    }

}    
$scope.initializeToZero();