Making an angular filter conditional

You can achieve this if you set the filter expression to '' (or undefined) – this causes the filter not to be applied – for when your disableFilter is set, or to the actual filter expression otherwise.

EDIT 2:
The other answer (below by @Ryan) is simpler and easier to understand. Can’t remember now whether it didn’t work for me initially or I simply didn’t think of this simpler way.

So, assuming, this toggling variable – disableFilter – is a boolean :

<a ng-repeat="set in data | filter: (!disableFilter || '') && filterExpression">

(with filterExpression being whatever the expression you want to filter by). Your specific case would be:

<a ng-repeat="set in data | filter: (!disableFilter || '') && {value: search}">

EDIT:

To explain how the above works.

1. Remember that || and && return the value of one of its operands.
2. || and && use short-circuit evaluation – true || (anything) returns true; false && (anything) returns false – without evaluating the (anything) expression.
3. '' is falsy (or use undefined instead, if it’s clearer)

And so,

when disableFilter === true, !disableFilter === false, thus the second operand of || – the empty string '' – is evaluated (it’s falsy), and (!disableFilter || '') returns '' – a falsy value, which short-circuits the && operation and does not evaluate the second operand of &&. The return value of the expression is thus ''.

when disableFilter === false, !disableFilter === true, which short-circuits the || operation, then the second operand of && is evaluated and returned. The return value of the expression is thus {value: search}.

Read more about logical operators here