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Why Won't My Razor Code Compile!?!

I've said it before: The Razor code that I enter into my ASP.NET MVC Views looks like magic to me. The ability Razor gives me to mix HTML and code surpasses my understanding. But, like magic, because I don't understand why Razor works, there are times where I don't understand why Razor doesn't work.

And neither do my clients, one of whom called me up last week to ask why code like the following wasn't acceptable to Razor (in C#, equivalent code wouldn't require the second @ ... but it still wouldn't compile):

@If RowRequired Then
  @<tr>
End If

The problem is that, inside a code block (like this If…Then block), Razor requires that all open tags have a matching close tag. Razor is fine with this code, for example:

@If RowRequired Then
  @<tr></tr>
End If

This can make structuring your HTML a little more awkward but, there is a solution: use @: instead of plain old @. With @:, this code compiles:

@If RowRequired Then
  @:<tr>
End If
</tr>

That's sharp!

Posted by Peter Vogel on 10/23/2015


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