AngularJS UI-Router get the current state from within a view

We can see what is defined for current state, using the $state.current, check this example showing:

state1
{
  "url": "/state1",
  "template": "<div>state1 <pre>{{current | json }}</pre><div ui-view=\"\"></div> </div>",
  "controller": "State1Ctrl",
  "name": "state1"
}
list
{
  "url": "/list",
  "template": "<div>list <pre>{{current | json }}</pre></div>",
  "controller": "State1Ctrl",
  "name": "state1.list"
}

the controller:

.controller('State1Ctrl', function($scope, $state) {

  $scope.current = $state.current

});

check that here

EXTEND: The above example will always return current state - i.e. if there is hierarchy of three states and we access the last state ('state1.list.detail') directly:

<a ui-sref="state1.list.detail({detailId:1})">....

Each controller will be provided with the same state: $state("state1.list.detail").

Why? beause this state has enough information what are all the views (hierarchically nested) and their controllers needed. We can observe that all in the

$state.$current // not .current

Quickly discussed here cite:

In addition, users can attach custom decorators, which will generate new properties within the state's internal definition. There is currently no clear use-case for this beyond accessing internal states (i.e. $state.$current), however, expect this to become increasingly relevant as we introduce additional meta-programming features.

BUT: there is NO way, how to get information from current controller instance, to which $state it belongs! Even any iterations, searching through some $state.get('stateName') will be unreliable, because simply there is no kept relation that way. One controller Class could be used for many views as different Instances. And also, from my experience, I do not remember any case, when I needed to know such information... wish now it is a bit more clear

You can access the current state configuratin object like this:

$state.current

For further information take a look at the $state documentation.

Couldn't find this documented anywhere, so I looked in the source code.

There is a data field named $uiView attached to the ui-view element, it contains the view name and the associated state. You can get this state like this:

elem.closest('[ui-view]').data('$uiView').state

or even

elem.inheritedData('$uiView').state

You can do it as follow,

$state.current.name //Return the name of current state