Get Model type in MVC View

Question

I'm using MVC4 and Razor and wish to determine the Model type from within a view. This should be easy but I'm not quite able to get the syntax correct.

I want to do this so I can conditionally display different markup in the _Layout.cshtml page depending on the current view and model that it's being used in.

It must be (I think) something along the lines of:

 @if (Model.GetType() == Web.Models.AccommodationModel) { // Obviously not correct
      <h1>Accomodation markup here</h1>
 }

Any suggestions much appreciated!

Answer 1

You can use an extension method like this:

public static Type GetModelType<T>(this IHtmlHelper<T> html) => typeof(T);

This code returns the type even if the Model is null. Usage in razor:

@{ var type = Html.GetModelType(); }

Answer 2

You could use the is keyword:

@if (Model is Web.Models.AccommodationModel) {
    <h1>Accomodation markup here</h1>
}

or also (uglier):

@if (Model.GetType() == typeof(Web.Models.AccommodationModel)) {
    <h1>Accomodation markup here</h1>
}

Answer 3

Although you've already got an answer I would suggest you to rethink the entire concept.

What you're doing here is coupling the generic layout with some particular views. Those views can change in the future requiring you to change the layout, there can be more and more of them or some would be deleted. So your approach breaks Single Responsibility Principle: threre are obviously more than one reasons to change _layout.cshtml.

What about inserting a @section SomeSection { <h1>markup</h1> } in views requiring such additional code and rendering it in the layout using @RenderSection("SomeSection"), maybe also with checking @if(IsSectionDefined("SomeSection")) in the place you want?