What is the difference between formControlName and FormControl?

Question

I'm using ReactiveFormsModule of Angular2 to create a component that contains a form. Here is my code:

foo.component.ts:

constructor(fb: FormBuilder) {
    this.myForm = fb.group({
        'fullname': ['', Validators.required],
        'gender': []
    });
}

foo.component.html (with [formControl]):

<div class="fields">
    <div class="field">
        <label>Fullname*</label>
        <input type="text" [formControl]="myForm.controls.fullname"/>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="inline fields">
    <label for="gender">Gender</label>
    <div class="field">
        <div class="ui radio checkbox">
            <input type="radio" name="gender" checked="" tabindex="0" class="hidden" [formControl]="myForm.controls.gender">
            <label>Male</label>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="field">
        <div class="ui radio checkbox">
            <input type="radio" name="gender" tabindex="0" class="hidden" [formControl]="myForm.controls.gender">
            <label>Female</label>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

foo.component.html (with formControlName):

<div class="fields">
    <div class="field">
        <label>Fullname*</label>
        <input type="text" formControlName="fullname"/>
    </div>
</div>

<div class="inline fields">
    <label for="gender">Gender</label>
    <div class="field">
        <div class="ui radio checkbox">
            <input type="radio" name="gender" checked="" tabindex="0" class="hidden" formControlName="gender">
            <label>Male</label>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div class="field">
        <div class="ui radio checkbox">
            <input type="radio" name="gender" tabindex="0" class="hidden" formControlName="gender">
            <label>Female</label>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Both ways work. But i cannot figure out what is the difference between using [formControl] and formControlName.

Answer 1

I believe you missed an important point: [formGroup] directive in the second example. formControlName is used together with [formGroup] to save your form multiple dot navigations. For example:

<div>
  <input type="text" [formControl]="myForm.controls.firstName"/>
  <input type="text" [formControl]="myForm.controls.lastName"/>
  <input type="text" [formControl]="myForm.controls.email"/>
  <input type="text" [formControl]="myForm.controls.title"/>
</div>

Is equivalent to:

<div [formGroup]="myForm">
  <input type="text" formControlName="firstName"/>
  <input type="text" formControlName="lastName"/>
  <input type="text" formControlName="email"/>
  <input type="text" formControlName="title"/>
</div>

Now imagine nested FormGroups :)