MVC and positional parameters in a query string

Question

This is more of a question to satisfy my curiosity vs something I really need answered. Back in ASP.NET WebForms, I'd occasionally use a positional parameter in a query string if I only had to pass one thing to a page. For example:

http://localhost/site/MyPage.aspx?ABCD1234

Then my code would look like this:

string accountNumber = "";
if (Request.QueryString.Count > 0)
   accountNumber = Request.QueryString[0];

In MVC, can you pass a positional query string parameter to a controller method instead of accessing it through Request.QueryString?

Answer 1

As long as your controller parameter is a string, then you can call it by not even naming the parameter and just appending it to the URI.

http://mydomain.com/controller/action/SingleStringParameterValue

If you want to use it as a query string parameter, then you have to have matching names on the controller and query string variable I believe.

Answer 2

You can do the same thing with MVC as well. You just have to make sure you don't have a route that directs the url with the query string to a different action method.

This works from the default project that ASP.NET MVC creates when you new up a project:

    public ActionResult Index() {

        if (Request.QueryString.Count > 0) 
            ViewData["Message"] = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC: " + Request.QueryString[0];
        else
            ViewData["Message"] = "Welcome to ASP.NET MVC";

        return View();
    }