7. Passing Data from the Controller to the View

Step 1: In HelloWorldController.cs, change the Welcome method to add a Message and NumTimes value to the ViewData dictionary.

HelloWorldController

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using System.Text.Encodings.Web;

namespace MvcMovie.Controllers
{
    public class HelloWorldController : Controller
    {
        public IActionResult Index()
        {
            return View();
        }

        public IActionResult Welcome(string name, int numTimes = 1)
        {
            ViewData["Message"] = "Hello " + name;
            ViewData["NumTimes"] = numTimes;

            return View();
        }
    }
}

The ViewData dictionary object contains data that will be passed to the view.

Step 2: Create a Welcome view template named Views/HelloWorld/Welcome.cshtml.

You'll create a loop in the Welcome.cshtml view template that displays "Hello" NumTimes. Replace the contents of Views/HelloWorld/Welcome.cshtml with the following:

@{
    ViewData["Title"] = "Welcome";
}

<h2>Welcome</h2>

<ul>
    @for (int i = 0; i < (int)ViewData["NumTimes"]!; i++)
    {
        <li>@ViewData["Message"]</li>
    }
</ul>

Step 3: Save your changes and browse to the following URL:

https://localhost:5001/HelloWorld/Welcome?name=Rick&numtimes=4

Data is taken from the URL and passed to the controller using the MVC model binder. The controller packages the data into a ViewData dictionary and passes that object to the view. The view then renders the data as HTML to the browser.

Privacy view showing a Welcome label and the phrase Hello Rick shown four times