What is the point of Partial Views in Asp.net MVC

Question

Ive noticed that there seems to be no real difference between a view and a partial view. For instance, one can create a view but can render it as a

Answer 1

To answer your question specifically, when adding a new view in Visual Studio, you will get some very basic markup generated for you as a starting point, based off of your selections in the dialog.

Here is the generated markup in Visual Studio 2010 (VB.NET) for the different combinations of the "Partial" checkbox and the "Layout" checkbox:

# "Create as a partial view" unchecked
# "Use a layout or master page:" unchecked

@Code
    Layout = Nothing
End Code





    
    


    


    

# "Create as a partial view" unchecked
# "Use a layout or master page:" checked

@Code
    ViewData("Title") = "MyView"
    Layout = "~/ThePath/ToThe/Layout.vbhtml"
End Code

MyView

# "Create as a partial view" checked
# "Use a layout or master page:" greyed out

# returns an empty file

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As you can see there is nothing fancy going on in the background or special properties being set in a secret file somewhere. The options are simply used to get some default markup on the page. Whether or not this is practical is purely subjective!