What's the point of Html.DisplayTextFor()?

Question

Is there a good reason to use the strongly typed html helper...

<%: Html.DisplayTextFor(model => model.Email) %> 

As opposed to...

<%: Model.Email %>  

Answer 1

Consider the following Model:

public class MyModel {     public string Name { get; set; }      [DisplayFormat(NullDisplayText = "No value available!")]     public string Email { get; set; }  } 

in my view:

<%= Html.DisplayTextFor(m => m.Email) %>  <%: Model.Email %> 

The first line will display "No value available" if we leave the Email to be 'null' whereas the second line will not display anything.

Conclusion: Html.DisplayTextFor will take into consideration the DataAnnotations on your properties, <%: Model.Email %> will not. Also <%: Model.Email %> will throw an "Object reference error" when the value is null, but <%= Html.DisplayTextFor %> wont.

Answer 2

DisplayTextFor will also get called during "DisplayFor" and "EditFor" execution. This will ensure that any templated helpers will display the text using the correct Templated Helpers if set ... so a change to the single templated helper will propogate through all displays of that text item ... simple display, edit form, create forms etc etc.