MVC- ViewData and ViewBag

Difference between ViewData and ViewBag

Both objects ViewData and ViewBag used to pass data from Controller to View and From View to Controller.

ViewData is a dictionary object where you can put data, which then becomes available to the view.

ViewData is a derivative of the ViewDataDictionary class, so you can access by the familiar “key/value” syntax.

ViewBag uses the dynamic feature and it  allows an object to dynamically have properties added to it.

As ViewBag is a dynamic property, instead of writing ViewData[“Value”]=”someValue”, we can write ViewBag.Value=”SomeValue”.

 We can just get or set properties and it will resolve them dynamically at run time.

ViewBag internally uses ViewData to store the values,

 ViewBag properties are stored as name/value pairs in the ViewData dictionary.

Note :  Values stored in ViewData can be accessed by ViewBag and  vice versa.

Example below

Controller

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace MvcTextApplication.Controllers

{

    public class ViewBagController : Controller

    {

       

        public ActionResult VDataSample1()

        {

            List<string> Prices = new List<string>();

            Prices.Add("109.09");

            Prices.Add("110.98");

          

            ViewData["Prices"] = Prices;

            ViewData["FundName"] = "US Microcap";

            ViewData["FundClass"] = "Class A";

         

            List<string> Currency = new List<string>();

            Currency.Add("USD");

            Currency.Add("GBP");

            Currency.Add("EURO");

            ViewBag.CurrenyList = Currency;

            ViewBag.FundDate = DateTime.Now.ToString(); 

        

            return View();

        }

    }

}

View

<h2>Simple View data Sample</h2>

<p>

    <b style="color:Red"><u> Fund Details using View Data</u></b><br />

    <b>Fund Name  :  <%: ViewData["Fund Name"]%></b><br />

    <b>Fund Class :  <%: ViewData["FundClass"]%></b><br />

    <b>FundDate(storen in ViewBag) :  <%: ViewData["FundDate"]%></b>     

</p>

<b style="color:Red"><u> Fund Prices</u></b>
 

<ul id="Funds">

<% foreach (var price in ViewData["Prices"] as List<string>)

   { %>

    <li>

       <%: price %>

    </li>

<% } %>

</ul>

<b style="color:Red"><u> View Bag Currency LIST</u></b>

<ul id="Ul2">

<% foreach (var cur in ViewData["CurrenyList"] as List<string>)

   { %>

    <li>

       <%: cur%>

    </li>

<% } %>

</ul>

<hr />

<p>

    <b style="color:Red"><u> Fund Details using ViewBag</u></b><br />

    <b>Fund Name  :  <%: ViewBag.FundName %></b><br />

    <b>Fund Class : <%: ViewBag.FundClass%></b><br /> 

    <b style="color:Red"><u> Fund Prices</u></b>

</p>

<ul id="Ul1">

<% foreach (var price in ViewBag.Prices)

   { %>

    <li>

       <%: price %>

    </li>

<% } %>

</ul>

<b style="color:Red"><u>Currency List</u></b>

<ul id="Ul3">

<% foreach (var cur in ViewBag.CurrenyList)

   { %>

    <li>

       <%: cur %>

    </li>

<% } %>

</ul>

OutPut :