Overview for menu

<mat-menu> is a floating panel containing list of options.

Basic menu

By itself, the <mat-menu> element does not render anything. The menu is attached to and opened via application of the matMenuTriggerFor directive:

<button mat-button [matMenuTriggerFor]="menu">Menu</button>

The menu exposes an API to open/close programmatically. Please note that in this case, an matMenuTriggerFor directive is still necessary to attach the menu to a trigger element in the DOM.

class MyComponent {
  @ViewChild(MatMenuTrigger) trigger: MatMenuTrigger;

  someMethod() {
    this.trigger.openMenu();
  }
}

Menus support displaying mat-icon elements before the menu item text.

<button mat-icon-button [matMenuTriggerFor]="menu" aria-label="Example icon-button with a menu">
  <mat-icon>more_vert</mat-icon>
</button>
<mat-menu #menu="matMenu">
  <button mat-menu-item>
    <mat-icon>dialpad</mat-icon>
    <span>Redial</span>
  </button>
  <button mat-menu-item disabled>
    <mat-icon>voicemail</mat-icon>
    <span>Check voice mail</span>
  </button>
  <button mat-menu-item>
    <mat-icon>notifications_off</mat-icon>
    <span>Disable alerts</span>
  </button>
</mat-menu>

By default, the menu will display below (y-axis), after (x-axis), without overlapping its trigger. The position can be changed using the xPosition (before | after) and yPosition (above | below) attributes. The menu can be forced to overlap the trigger using the overlapTrigger attribute.

<mat-menu #aboveMenu="matMenu" yPosition="above">

Material supports the ability for an mat-menu-item to open a sub-menu. To do so, you have to define your root menu and sub-menus, in addition to setting the [matMenuTriggerFor] on the mat-menu-item that should trigger the sub-menu:

<mat-menu #animals="matMenu">
  <button mat-menu-item [matMenuTriggerFor]="vertebrates">Vertebrates</button>
  <button mat-menu-item [matMenuTriggerFor]="invertebrates">Invertebrates</button>
</mat-menu>

<mat-menu #vertebrates="matMenu">
  <button mat-menu-item [matMenuTriggerFor]="fish">Fishes</button>
  <button mat-menu-item [matMenuTriggerFor]="amphibians">Amphibians</button>
  <button mat-menu-item [matMenuTriggerFor]="reptiles">Reptiles</button>
  <button mat-menu-item>Birds</button>
  <button mat-menu-item>Mammals</button>
</mat-menu>

By default, the menu content will be initialized even when the panel is closed. To defer initialization until the menu is open, the content can be provided as an ng-template with the matMenuContent attribute:

<mat-menu #appMenu="matMenu">
  <ng-template matMenuContent>
    <button mat-menu-item>Settings</button>
    <button mat-menu-item>Help</button>
  </ng-template>
</mat-menu>

<button mat-icon-button [matMenuTriggerFor]="appMenu">
  <mat-icon>more_vert</mat-icon>
</button>

When using lazy rendering, additional context data can be passed to the menu panel via the matMenuTriggerData input. This allows for a single menu instance to be rendered with a different set of data, depending on the trigger that opened it:

<mat-menu #appMenu="matMenu">
  <ng-template matMenuContent let-name="name">
    <button mat-menu-item>Settings</button>
    <button mat-menu-item>Log off {{name}}</button>
  </ng-template>
</mat-menu>

<button mat-icon-button [matMenuTriggerFor]="appMenu" [matMenuTriggerData]="{name: 'Sally'}">
  <mat-icon>more_vert</mat-icon>
</button>

<button mat-icon-button [matMenuTriggerFor]="appMenu" [matMenuTriggerData]="{name: 'Bob'}">
  <mat-icon>more_vert</mat-icon>
</button>
Keyboard shortcut Action
Down Arrow Focus the next menu item.
Up Arrow Focus the previous menu item.
Left Arrow Close the current menu if it is a sub-menu.
Right Arrow Opens the current menu item's sub-menu.
Enter Activate the focused menu item.
Escape Close all open menus.

Angular Material's menu component consists of two connected parts: the trigger and the pop-up menu.

The menu trigger is a standard button element augmented with aria-haspopup, aria-expanded, and aria-controls to create the relationship to the pop-up panel.

The pop-up menu implements the role="menu" pattern, handling keyboard interaction and focus management. Upon opening, the trigger will focus the first focusable menu item. Upon close, the menu will return focus to its trigger. Avoid creating a menu in which all items are disabled, instead hiding or disabling the menu trigger.

Angular Material does not support the menuitemcheckbox or menuitemradio roles.

Always provide an accessible label via aria-label or aria-labelledby for any menu triggers or menu items without descriptive text content.

MatMenu should not contain any interactive controls aside from MatMenuItem.

Azure & Blue theme selected.