What's the difference between Html.Label, Html.LabelFor and Html.LabelForModel

Question

What's the difference between @Html.Label(), @Html.LabelFor() and @Html.LabelForModel() methods?

Answer 1

Html.Label gives you a label for an input whose name matches the specified input text (more specifically, for the model property matching the string expression):

// Model public string Test { get; set; }  // View @Html.Label("Test")  // Output <label for="Test">Test</label> 

Html.LabelFor gives you a label for the property represented by the provided expression (typically a model property):

// Model public class MyModel {     [DisplayName("A property")]     public string Test { get; set; } }  // View @model MyModel @Html.LabelFor(m => m.Test)  // Output <label for="Test">A property</label> 

Html.LabelForModel is a bit trickier. It returns a label whose for value is that of the parameter represented by the model object. This is useful, in particular, for custom editor templates. For example:

// Model public class MyModel {     [DisplayName("A property")]     public string Test { get; set; } }  // Main view @Html.EditorFor(m => m.Test)  // Inside editor template @Html.LabelForModel()  // Output <label for="Test">A property</label> 

Answer 2

Html.Label - Just creates a label tag with whatever the string passed into the constructor is

Html.LabelFor - Creates a label for that specific property. This is strongly typed. By default, this will just do the name of the property (in the below example, it'll output MyProperty if that Display attribute wasn't there). Another benefit of this is you can set the display property in your model and that's what will be put here:

public class MyModel {     [Display(Name="My property title")     public class MyProperty{get;set;} } 

In your view:

Html.LabelFor(x => x.MyProperty) //Outputs My property title 

In the above, LabelFor will display <label for="MyProperty">My property title</label>. This works nicely so you can define in one place what the label for that property will be and have it show everywhere.