CODEWITHSUNDEEP
asp.net-mvchtml-helper
jgauffin
jgauffin

Reputation: 101150

Build html strings in HtmlHelper extension methods

Can someone be kind and explain why I should write strings in this way:

    public static MvcHtmlString Render(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, MenuItem menuItem)
    {
        if (!menuItem.IsVisible)
            return MvcHtmlString.Empty;

        var li = new TagBuilder("li");
        var a = new TagBuilder("a");
        a.MergeAttribute("href", menuItem.Uri);
        a.SetInnerText(menuItem.Title);
        li.InnerHtml = a.ToString();
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(li.ToString());
    }

When this is so much cleaner:

    public static MvcHtmlString Render(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, MenuItem item)
    {
        if (!item.IsVisible)
            return MvcHtmlString.Empty;

        var str = string.Format(@"<li><a href=""{0}"">{1}</a></li>", item.Uri, item.Title);
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(str.ToString());
    }

What are the benefits?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2640

Answers (2)

Domenic
Domenic

Reputation: 112857

There isn't a great reason. I would say speed, since TagBuilder is essentially a specialized StringBuilder, which is known to be faster than string.Format, but I'd need to see some benchmarks, since it seems like the whole HTML structure thing might slow things down.

One example of why you might want to use it is that it makes conditional logic easier. I think for example something like

var theClass = item.Title.Length > 5 ? " class=\"Long\"" : "";
var str = string.Format(@"<li><a href=""{0}""{1}>{2}</a></li>", item.Uri, theClass, item.Title);

is not very clear or clean, whereas

if (item.Title.Length > 5)
{
    a.AddCssClass("Long");
}
// And then all that other stuff.

is a pretty nice solution.

Upvotes: 4

John Farrell
John Farrell

Reputation: 24754

TagBuilder just ensures your HTML is well formed. I tend to use tagbuilder for anything I would use multiple lines for in HTML like an span within a href within an div for the extra protection from typos.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions