CheckBox in asp.net mvc

Question

i have two options

One

<%= Html.CheckBox("postType", false, new { @id = item.int_PostTypeId.ToString() })%>

Second

<input type="checkbox"  name="postType" value="<%= item.int_PostTypeId.ToString() %>

1st question: what is differenct between these two method of check box declaration.

2nd question: and how can we get value of checked checkbox?

Answer 1

Use the Html.Checkbox (or even better the CheckBoxFor, in MVC2) if you use a model binder. It will handle the checkbox transparently to you, and you will read the boolean value on your model. It will render something more complicated than a checkbox (to avoid the problem which arises from the fact that an unchecked checkbox is not transmitted at all in a POST).

On the contrary, use the input if you retrieve the value via FormCollection: if you use the Html.Checkbox compound, you will receive something "strange" in the post (not the usual value, but a string with two testual values (like "true,false"). If you use the input, you just have to check if there exists that name in the post keys.

Answer 2

One major difference is that your are setting the "id" attribute of the HTML input (@ is used to denote the HTML tag attribute: @id, @class, etc.) in the first snippet and setting the "value" of the second...

You need to set the @id in both, so that you can retrieve the value easily in Javascript.

You didn't say in what context you wanted the value - whether client side via javascript or controller side via .NET.