What is ViewData and implement ViewData in ASP.NET MVC?

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ViewBag, ViewData, and TempData all are Dictionary objects in ASP.NET MVC and these are used for data passing in various situations.

The following are the situations where we can use TempData and other objects.

  1. Pass the data from Controller to View.
  2. Pass the data from an action to another action in Controller.
  3. Pass the data in between Controllers.
  4. Pass the data between consecutive requests.

What is Dictionary Object?

In C#, Dictionary is used to store the key-value pairs. The Dictionary is the same as the non-generic hashtable. It can be defined under System.Collection.Generic namespace. It has a dynamic nature which means the size of the dictionary grows according to the need.

Here is an example:

What is ViewData?

In MVC, when we want to transfer the data from the controller to view, we use ViewData. It is a dictionary type that stores the data internally.

ViewData contains key-value pairs which means each key must be a string in a dictionary.

The only limitation of ViewData is, it can transfer data from controller to view. It can not transfer in any other way and it is valid only during the current request.

Syntax:

When we want to use the key-value pair to ViewData,

We can also use ViewData in the razor view from controller. Here is the syntax for that:

When we want to add custom objects, array, list, etc, in ViewData, and cast them back in the View. We can use the code snippet as below:

Figure 1: ViewData Flow

Here is an example of ViewData which shows how to transfer data from controller to view using ViewData.

In this example, ViewData[“employees”] is assigned to an employeeList where “employees” is a key and employeeList is a value.

To access the ViewData[“employees”] in the view, here is the snippet of code you can use.

In simple terms, these are the ways to store and retrieve data to and for respectively ViewData as shown:

Storing :

Retriving :

 

In MVC, ViewData does not check compile-time errors. If we misspell the key names, we would not get any errors but we can identify them at the run time.

For example,

Controller:

View

Figure 2: Output

What is ViewBag?

ViewBag is an object which is dynamically passing the data from Controller to View and this will pass the data as the property of object ViewBag. We do not need to typecast to read the data for null checking here.

Controller:

View:

Here is an example:

Controller:

View:

ASP View bag 2

Figure 3: Output

What is TempData?

TempData is a dictionary object derived from TempDataDictionary which contains key-pair values. It is useful when we want to transfer the data from the Controller to the View in ASP.NET MVC Application. It stays for a subsequent HTTP request as opposed to other options we discussed prior who stay only for the current request.

Although it removes the key-value pair once it is accessed, we can keep it using

Here is an example:

Controller:

View:

Differences between ViewData, ViewBag and TempData:

ViewData

ViewBag

TempData

Key-Value Dictionary Object

Type Object

Key-Value Dictionary Collection

A property of ControllerBase class

A Dynamic property of ControllerBase class

A property of the controllerBase class

Faster

Slower

Introduced in MVC 1.0, Available in MVC 1.0 and above

Introduced in MVC 3.0,

Available in MVC 3.0 and above

Introduced in MVC 1.0,

Available in MVC 1.0 and above.

Works with .NET Framework 3.5 and above

Works with .NET framework 4.0 and above

Works with .NET framework 3.5 and above

Type Conversion code is required

Type Conversion code is not required

Type Conversion code is required

Value becomes null if a redirection has occurred

Value becomes null if a redirection has occurred

TempData is used to pass data between two consecutive requests

Lies only during the current request

Lies only during the current request

Only works during the current and subsequent request

Conclusion

Figure 4: Summary

To conclude, it is clear that ViewData is used to pass the data from Controller action to View. Here, we discussed ViewData properties and how to use that in any MVC application.

 

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Vinod Satapara

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Vinod is the Technical Director, iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd. Technocrat and entrepreneur with years of experience building large scale enterprise web, cloud and mobile applications using latest technologies like ASP.NET, CORE, .NET MVC, Angular and Blockchain. Keen interest in addressing business problems using latest technologies and help organization to achieve goals.