When is ViewState session cleared ?

Question

I know SessionState is Cleared when the session dies - usually after 20min of inactivity. My question is when does ViewState session dies ? Or does it never dies ? Is there any way to clear it ?

Answer 1

Viewstate lasts for as long as it's on the page - it's outputted with the HTML; check the source to your rendered page and you will see a load of text in a hidden field.

Something like:

<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE" id="__VIEWSTATE" value="/wEPDwUJNTIyODQ4NzI.....

Once the page is gone, it's gone.

You can clear it by calling

ViewState.Clear()

Answer 2

Old ViewState, like old soldiers, never dies, it just fades away...

It's stored in hidden fields in the HTML page, and stays alive in the browser's cache.