@Html.BeginForm syntax in Visual Basic

Question

I'm using ASP.NET MVC 5 and Visual Studio Express 2013. I have this small form in a C# project:

<body>
    @using (Html.BeginForm())
    {
        <p>Your name: @Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Name) </p>
        <p>Your email: @Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Email) </p>
        <p>Your phone: @Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Phone) </p>
    }
</body>

I tried to translate the code above into VB.NET as shown below:

<body>
    @Using Html.BeginForm()
        <p>Your name: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m), m.Name)</p>
        <p>Your email: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m), m.Email)</p>
        <p>Your phone: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m), m.phone)</p>
    End Using
</body>

I have blue lines under the 'Your' in each "P" element. The hint-help when I hover over the blue line is 'Attribute specifier is not a complete statement. Use a line continuation to apply the attribute to the following statement.'.

When I debug the page, the error is 'BC30201: Expression expected.' on the line where the @Using occurs.

What am I doing wrong?

is the @Using followed by @Html.BeginForm() a typo? You might not need two @'s on that line — user4103496
– user4103496, Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 22:14
It wasn't exactly a typo. I tried inserting extra @'s at various places to see if I could get the syntax right. I forgot to remove that one when I wrote up the post. I verified that it was not present in my VB code, reran the page, and I'm still getting problems. The error message shifts from the line with the @Using to the following line (the first textbox), and the message is: BC32035: Attribute specifier is not a complete statement. Use a line continuation to apply the attribute to the following statement. — James Balentine
– James Balentine, Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 23:18

Sam Axe · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-14 23:59:52Z

10

As @rogerdeuce surmised, you do not need the second @ symbol.

@ is used to switch context from VB code to HTML/text.

So the correct code would look like:

<body>
    @Using Html.BeginForm()
        @<p>Your name: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.Name)</p>
        @<p>Your email: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.Email)</p>
        @<p>Your phone: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.phone)</p>
    End Using
</body>

Or you could use the @<text> shortcut:

<body>
    @Using Html.BeginForm()
        @<text>
        <p>Your name: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.Name)</p>
        <p>Your email: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.Email)</p>
        <p>Your phone: @Html.TextBoxFor(Function(m) m.phone)</p>
        </text>
    End Using
</body>

edited Jan 14, 2016 at 23:59

answered Jan 14, 2016 at 22:20

Sam Axe

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4 Comments

Sam Axe Over a year ago

Note that I renamed your expression variable from model to m to avoid naming conflicts with the built-in Model variable.

James Balentine Over a year ago

Thank you. I tried both examples above. When I change the code in my page to one of them, I have a blue line under the comma in the lambda expression, and under the 'm' in m.Name. The blue line under the comma hovers as 'Expression expected', and the blue line under the 'm' hovers as "'m' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level." When I debug the page, it aborts with a message of 'BC30201: Expression expected.'

Sam Axe Over a year ago

Whoops. Corrected that. There's no comma in lambda expressions.

James Balentine Over a year ago

Doh! You're right! That fixed it! Thank you, @Sam Axe.

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